WASHINGTON: The US media are describing the capture of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as a Christmas gift for President George W. Bush. And Col. Moammar Qadhafi's decision to open Libya's arsenals for UN inspection, they say, is an additional decoration.

The ruling Republican Party hopes that these victories - combined with the signs of a moderate economic recovery - would help President Bush get re-elected in 2004.

This is already a remarkable achievement for a president who won the presidency four years ago on a largely domestic agenda. A CBS/New York Times poll released last week says that Mr Bush's approval ratings were up six percentage points after Saddam's capture.

The capture of Saddam Hussein has made many view the occupation of Iraq more positively. Money is flowing into his re- election accounts. Democrats seem more divided than they were only weeks ago," Peter Grier, a political analyst writes in the Christian Science Monitor.

President Bush's ratings were good even before his troops netted Saddam from a ditch in a farmhouse in his hometown, Tikrit. A Time/CNN opinion poll released on Nov 23 predicted that Mr Bush would have won a presidential re-election if it were held then.

The poll suggested that if Mr Bush were to run against former Nato commander and Democrat hopeful Wesley Clark, he would win by 49 per cent to 42 per cent of the votes.

The sitting president would win 52 per cent to 39 per cent against former Vermont governor Howard Dean. But political analysts have warned that the US occupation of Iraq could also be politically divisive as President Bush enters the election year.

They say that despite positive poll ratings, it was still too early to predict who would win the 2004 election.

"Months from now, pundits might look back and say President Bush peaked too soon, like a baseball team that collapsed after leading its division in May," warned Mr Grier.

"The new terrorism alert has introduced an element of unease into the US holiday season. Another Al Qaeda attack could rewrite the nation's politics," he said.

Another Washington Post-ABC News survey, based on interviews conducted between Dec 18 and Dec 21, indicate that 64 per cent Americans believe the number of US casualties in Iraq is unacceptable while only 33 per cent think otherwise.

Yet support for the war has remained solid. Asked whether the war in Iraq was worth fighting, considering the costs and the benefits to the United States, 59 per cent said it was.

However, defence analysts and public opinion experts, interviewed for the survey, warned that support for the war could erode dramatically if casualties continue at a relatively high rate next year and consequently could undermine public confidence in President Bush.

Some experts have said that a single event that causes a large number of US casualties, such as the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, could push the public toward the tipping point.

The ruling Republican Party, although confident that foreign policy achievements would help Mr Bush, acknowledges that an economic recovery is important to retake the White House in 2004.

But economists say that Mr Bush's campaign to re-ignite the US economy and win re-election is not going to be pretty. With both government and consumers heavily indebted, with the stock market likely to fall and house prices also liable to do so, the economy may still have a negative impact on Mr Bush's re-election campaign.

Democrats too are aware of Mr Bush's weakness in this field and blame him for destroying the US economy, which, they say, was doing so well when Democrat Bill Clinton was in the White House.

The Republicans disagree. They say that Mr Bush inherited an economy that was just beginning to run out of steam and head towards a recession. But they too acknowledge that Mr Bush's efforts to revive the economy have been not as successful as they should have been.

His tax cuts, and defence spending that spiralled after the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, are not very popular among lower middle class and middle class voters.

The tax cuts, they argue, have helped the rich more than they helped the poor and the defence spending, particularly on the war in Iraq, could have been reduced.

Mr Bush seems aware of such feelings and has been trying hard to revive the economy. Political pundits point out that Mr Bush does not want to go into the re-election race and lose, as his father did, to a cry of "It's the economy, stupid."

To ensure that the history does not repeat itself, President Bush's political advisers "have set in motion an aggressive re- election machine, building a national network of get-out-the-vote workers and amassing a pile of cash for a blanket advertising campaign expected to begin around the time Democrats settle on their candidate early next year," says The New York Times.