CANNES, France, May 22: A documentary that is fiercely critical of US President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq, "Fahrenheit 9/11", won the Cannes film festival's prestigious Palme d'Or late Saturday.

The movie, by US writer/ director Michael Moore, was chosen from a field of 19 films seen by a jury led this year by "Kill Bill" director Quentin Tarantino.

It is the first time a documentary has won the top Cannes award.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" spans the changes in the United States under Bush since the 2000 US elections, through the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, and the subsequent US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

It is savage to Bush, showing footage that portrays the US president as often out of his depth and keen to further his family's close ties to Saudi families grown rich from oil - including the relatives of Osama bin Laden.

Moore, who won an Oscar last year for his previous documentary, "Bowling for Columbine", said during the Cannes festival that he believed his new film could help deliver a crushing defeat to Bush in November presidential elections.

That is why, he has alleged, the White House has brought pressure to bear to stop the movie from being seen in US cinemas before the polls, out of fear it would influence voters.

Disney, the parent group of the film's production company, Miramax, has refused to distribute the film, prompting Moore and his backers to search for a new deal.

The director has vowed to get the film out in the United States within weeks.

The festival jury's decision to award its top prize to the documentary was seen by some as controversial, because it relied on footage from many sources as well as by Moore's crews, but it also upheld Cannes's long tradition of mixing politics and celluloid.

Above all, the honour gave Moore another opportunity to expound on his anti-Bush views in front of an international audience, reprising his news-making Oscar speech delivered just days into the Iraq war.

That conflict has taken electrifying turns in recent days and weeks, with the US-led coalition crumbling with a little over a month to go before the Iraqis are due to recover some sovereign powers, and as the US government and military reel under the ongoing discovery that soldiers badly mistreated Iraqi prisoners.-AFP