WASHINGTON, Jan 18: Democrats are flexing their muscles to try to thwart President George W. Bush’s plan to boost troop levels in Iraq, which the White House insists will go ahead.

Democrats in the House and Senate and a lone Republican unleashed a resolution condemning the new Iraq strategy and two bills requiring congress to approve funding for any additional troops and calling for a full withdrawal.

Despite growing opposition to what Bush termed a “surge” of 21,500 troops, not only from Democratic lawmakers but from the US public, the White House seems more determined to press ahead with its plan with or without Congress and public support.

“At this point, the president has obligations as a commander in chief. And he will go ahead and execute them,” Bush spokesman Tony Snow said on Wednesday.

“To tie one’s hand in a time of war is a pretty extreme move,” he added, referring to Senator Christopher Dodd’s bill on Tuesday that would require congressional approval for any increase in US troops in Iraq.

“What it does is something that no commander in chief I think would want to have, which is it binds the hands of the commander in chief and also the generals, and, frankly, also the troops on the ground, in terms of responding to situations and contingencies that may occur there,” he said.

Democrats took control of Congress on Jan 4 for the first time in a dozen years after a sweeping victory in November elections based on voter anger at the Iraq war.

Far from heeding Snow’s criticism, influential Democratic senators Joseph Biden and Carl Levin and outspoken Republican Iraq war critic Chuck Hagel introduced a non-binding resolution calling Bush’s plan “not in the national interest”. The draft resolution called on the US to transfer to Iraq’s government and military “under an appropriately expedited timeline” responsibility for security and halting sectarian violence, and to work for an internationally sponsored peace and reconciliation in Iraq.

“US strategy and presence on the ground in Iraq can only be sustained with the support of the American people and bipartisan support from Congress,”Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a news conference.

Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, meanwhile, continued to promote a bill requiring congressional approval for additional funding of troops in Iraq.

And in the House of Representatives, Democrats Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters on Tuesday introduced a bill calling for a full withdrawal of US forces from Iraq within six months and repeal congressional authorization for the use of force in

Iraq.

The bills and draft resolution came as two new polls showed Americans’ discontent with the direction of the war.

The Pew Research Centre found that 62 per cent of those interviewed said things were going badly in Iraq, up from 43 per cent in June. By a 51-40 per cent margin more believe military action was the wrong decision to take in Iraq, flipping from 44-49 per cent in June.

On Bush’s troop surge in Iraq, Pew found those opposed ahead by a 61-31 per cent margin.

In a George Washington University poll, 43 per cent said the November vote was about the war in Iraq and that it sent a “clear message” the United States government “should change the way it is fighting the war.”

Meanwhile, in Iraq the relentless carnage continued on Wednesday as a female US aid worker was among three foreigners killed during a Baghdad ambush, and bombers again hit the capital's volatile Shiite district of Sadr City, killing 15 people.

—AFP