DAVOS: Security analysts and a leading human rights campaigner called on Wednesday for a rethink of the "war on terror" and challenged President George Bush's assertion that it was making America safer.

Mr Bush devoted much of Tuesday's State of the Union address to rallying Americans behind the "war on terror", telling them the nation must not falter and leave its work unfinished.

He saluted the hundreds of thousands of US servicemen deployed across the world and declared: "By bringing hope to the oppressed and delivering justice to the violent, they are making America more secure."

But independent analysts at the opening session of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland said that far from making the country safer, the "war on terror" and the invasion of Iraq had served only to aggravate the dangers.

"No, we are not safer," said Jessica Stern, lecturer in public policy at Harvard University. "Going into Iraq in the way we did, without broad international support, really increased the ability of Al Qaeda and its sympathizers to prove that the objective of the United States is to humiliate the Islamic world, more than it was to liberate the Iraqi people."

Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister and head of the International Crisis Group think-tank, said Al Qaeda and its sympathizers had expanded their theatre of operations since the Sept 11, 2001, attacks to more countries, including Morocco, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

"The unhappy truth is that the net result of the war on terror, so far at least, has been more war and more terror," Mr Evans said. "In Iraq, the least plausible of all the reasons for going to war - terrorism - has now become the most harrowing of its consequences."

Security and terrorism are major themes of this year's World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, attended by more than 2,280 participants from 94 countries, including 31 heads of state or government.

Mr Bush, in his speech to Congress, stressed the importance of US military action, tighter law enforcement and new security measures such as the requirement on foreign airlines to submit passenger lists in advance to US authorities.

But participants in the Davos discussion urged more attention be devoted to tackling underlying grievances, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Kashmir dispute.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said measures like the detention without trial of more than 600 "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, had surrendered the moral high ground and provided a rallying point for militants.

"While undoubtedly the Bush administration is leading the war against terrorism, it - in an odd way - has also become the chief recruiter for Al Qaeda," he said.

In rare praise for Mr Bush, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak said the president's leadership was helping to bring about a safer world. The televised image of a docile Saddam Hussein, submitting to medical checks after his capture, sent a powerful message to the leaders of Libya, Iran, Syria and North Korea, he said.

But he acknowledged the success of Osama bin Laden in stirring up support in the Muslim world. "The real achievement of Osama bin Laden...is that he ignited the imagination of hundreds of millions in the Arab world. That's his ultimate weapon. That's what gives him hope and patience and a kind of evil optimism," Mr Barak said. -Reuters