Bush attacks China's 'Iraq role'

Mr Bush takes questions on US policy towards Iraq

US President George W Bush has protested to China about its alleged involvement in bolstering Iraq's air defences.

It's troubling that [the Chinese] be involved in helping Iraq develop a system that will endanger our pilots

President Bush

At his first news conference since taking office, Mr Bush said he was "concerned about the Chinese presence in Iraq" and was "sending the appropriate response" to Beijing.

China has already denied allegations that Chinese civilian and military workers have been helping lay fibre-optic cables to improve Iraq's air defence network, in contravention of UN sanctions.

Mr Bush added that a full review of sanctions against Iraq was under way, as the existing regime was so full of holes it was like "Swiss cheese".

'Retaliatory' strike

US warplanes again struck air defence targets in northern Iraq on Thursday, the first time since major raids were launched near the capital Baghdad last week.

US forces' European Command said the strike - north of the city of Mosul - was in retaliation for anti-aircraft artillery being fired at aircraft patrolling the air exclusion zone imposed by the UK-US coalition which covers much of the north of the country.

"Coalition aircraft responded to the Iraqi attacks by dropping ordnance on elements of the Iraqi integrated air defence system," the US command said in a statement.

Last Friday's bombing was the first time targets near the Iraqi capital have been attacked for more than two years, although there have been numerous attacks on outlying regions in response to the threat of Iraqi artillery fire against coalition planes.

The US and Britain justified last week's air strikes against targets near Baghdad by arguing that there was an "increased threat" to allied aircraft patrolling the air exclusion zones - in part due to the installation of fibre-optic technology, reportedly by engineers from China.

International anger

There have been angry protests in the Middle East and beyond over the attacks, souring UN-Iraqi relations ahead of key talks aimed at paving the way for a lifting of the decade-old embargo on Iraq.

Iraqi anti-aircraft defences have been targeting patrols for two years

BBC Washington correspondent Tom Carver says Thursday's air strike appears to be a quick response measure - in contrast to last week's when at least 24 planes attacked a number of radar and communication installations in a carefully planned operation.

'Unexploded missile'

An Iraqi newspaper reported that the military defused an unexploded guided missile found on farmland near Baghdad - apparently from last week's bombing.

Earlier, Pentagon officials admitted that most of the laser-guided bombs dropped on Iraq last week actually missed their targets.

Officials said America's newest smart bombs performed far worse than expected, with damage detected on only 40% of the targeted radar installations.

Checks are now being carried out to see if this might have been due to a software error.

At his news conference, Mr Bush expressed satisfaction with the effectiveness of the air strikes despite the low strike rate.

"We had two missions," Mr Bush said. "One was to send a clear message to Saddam. The other was to degrade the capacity of Saddam to injure our pilots. I believe we succeeded in both those missions."