WASHINGTON, Sept 7: Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry blamed President Bush for leading the United States into a "quagmire" as the US media reported on Tuesday that at least 12 American soldiers had been killed in Iraq in the past two days.

So far, a total of 995 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since March 2003, when the war began. Many more have been injured. Thousands of Iraqis have also been killed in a war that continues to get more vicious everyday.

The war has become a key issue in the presidential election with Mr Bush claiming that the invasion has saved his country from future terror attacks and his challenger saying the war has had "catastrophic" consequences for the United States.

Seven of the 12 US servicemen were killed in a suicide bombing. "I said, 'Mr President don't rush to war, take the time to build a legitimate coalition and have a plan to win the peace," said Senator Kerry while explaining that he differed with Mr Bush's strategy even when he voted last year for sending US troops to Iraq.

"It's a wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time," declared the Democratic presidential nominee. Mr Bush disagreed. At a stop in the battle ground state of Missouri, the US president accused his challenger of waffling on the Iraq war.

"After voting for the war but against funding it, after saying he would have voted for the war even today, my opponent woke up this morning with campaign advisers and yet another new position," said Mr Bush.

Although Mr Kerry had voted for the war before the US invasion in March 2003, he later voted against providing additional funds for continuing the war, but last month he said he would have voted for the war a second time as well.

Explaining his position, Mr Kerry said: "I would have done everything differently than the president on Iraq. I said this from the beginning of the debate to the walk up to the war."

Mr Bush rejected his argument. "No matter, how many times Senator John Kerry changes his mind, it was right for America then and it's right for America now that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power."

Mr Bush, who is riding a surge in the polls after his convention in New York last week, has opened up a polling lead over Mr Kerry. The last Gallup poll, taken Friday through Sunday, put Mr Bush at 52 per cent and Mr Kerry at 45, with one per cent of independent Ralph Nader. The same poll, taken before the convention, had Mr Bush ahead by just two percentage points. Earlier post-convention polls showed 11-point margins.