Bush to speed up Iraqi handover

Iraq is reeling from a bomb attack on Italian peacekeepers

President George W Bush has said the US is taking steps to speed up the transfer of power in Iraq.

"We want the Iraqis to be more involved in the governance of their country," Mr Bush told reporters at the White House.

Amid mounting casualties, France - which led opposition at the invasion of Iraq - has called for an urgent change of American strategy in the country.

But the US says it is not planning to withdraw its forces until a democratic society is established in Iraq.

The Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said he estimated this might take at least two years.

Sounds of heavy gunfire and explosions were reported in the Iraqi capital on Thursday evening, as US forces continued an offensive against suspected guerrillas.

We are looking to see if there might be any modifications to that basic line that might allow the process to move even faster Colin Powell US secretary of state

In Basra - capital of the southern occupation zone where a bomb in Nasiriya killed 18 Italians and nine Iraqis on Wednesday - British troops have visibly stepped up patrols, mounting numerous checkpoints and lighting up the night sky with flares.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said consultations in Washington this week with the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, had been aimed at speeding up the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq and there could be "modifications" to current policy.

"Ambassador Bremer's consultations... will lead to a plan that will accelerate the process but it will be along the basic, fundamental lines that we have laid out from the beginning," he told reporters on Thursday.

In other Iraq developments:

• The top American military commander in Iraq, General John Abizaid, says forces opposing US-led troops in the country total no more than 5,000 mostly loyalists of the ousted Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein

• UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says more British troops will be sent to Iraq if they are needed

• Japan delays sending troops to join the US-led coalition in Iraq because of the worsening security situation

• South Korea confirms that it will limit its promised troop deployment in Iraq to 3,000, despite American requests for a larger force

'Tough'

Dozens of American troops have been killed in Iraq in intensifying guerrilla-style attacks.

In an interview with the BBC ahead of next week's trip to Britain, Mr Bush acknowledged the situation faced by coalition troops in Iraq was "tough".

He told the Breakfast With Frost programme that the attackers wanted "to shake the will of the free world, and the good news about having a partner like [UK Prime Minister] Tony Blair is he won't be shaken, you see, and neither will I".

Iraqi citizens, he said, needed to know that "we won't leave the country prematurely".

"They need to know two things: we're not going to cut and run; and two, we believe they have the capacity to run their own country."

France warns

The French foreign minister told Europe-1 radio that an American goal of setting up a provisional government by mid-2004 was too distant.

Dominique de Villepin said a UN representative should be appointed to work alongside Mr Bremer, with the aim of handing power a representative assembly of Iraqis by the end of 2003.

How many deaths does it take to understand that it is essential to change the approach? Dominique de Villepin

"The international community cannot wait any longer," he said.

"How many deaths does it take to understand that it is essential to change the approach?"

Mr de Villepin said France was ready to contribute to the development of Iraq, once an Iraqi government was in place.

"Our hand is held out to our American friends because the challenge affects us all. The security of the world is at stake."

President Bush's interview will be broadcast in full in the Breakfast with Frost programme on BBC One at 0900 GMT on Sunday 16 November.