Iraq book piles pressure on Bush

Woodward interviewed Mr Bush and administration officials for his book

US President George W Bush began secret planning for the war in Iraq in December 2001, a new book claims.

That was a time when the US was saying it was still pursuing a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Baghdad.

The book, titled "Plan of Attack", was written by Bob Woodward, the veteran Washington Post reporter.

Due out next week, it is likely to give fuel to critics who have accused the president of being too eager to go to war with Saddam Hussein.

The new claims about the Iraq war are being published in the US in a storm of publicity.

The Washington Post has published advance excerpts of Mr Woodward's behind-the-scenes account of the 16 months leading to the Iraq invasion.

Secret plans

Mr Woodward - known for his role in the Watergate scandal that forced president Richard Nixon to quit in 1974, interviewed Mr Bush and his administration officials for the book.

The president reportedly told Mr Woodward he would co-operate because he wanted the story of how the US had gone to war in Iraq to be told.

The journalist says Mr Bush met repeatedly with his war cabinet in late 2001 - three months after the 11 September attacks on the US - to plan the US attack on Iraq.

According to AP news agency, which obtained a copy of the book, he did not brief everyone on his national security team.

His national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was not fully briefed, AP quoted the book as saying.

Mr Bush told the journalist that if the news had leaked, it would have caused "enormous international angst and domestic speculation".

The book puts the blame for mistaken intelligence on weapons of mass destruction on the CIA director George Tenet, who reportedly assured the president the weapons existed.

Mr Woodward also says Vice-President Cheney was a "steamrolling force" behind war preparations and that the relationship between Mr Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell became severely strained.