Bush and Allawi see Iraq on path to freedom and democracy

1.00pm - By RUPERT CORNWELL in Washington

Whole swathes of the country might be in rebel hands, American forces might suffer dozens of attacks daily, and Ken Bigley might be facing imminent execution. But for George W Bush and Iyad Allawi today, these were but minor obstacles on Iraq's certain path to freedom and democracy.

For four hours the Iraqi interim Prime Minister was front and centre of the American President's re-election campaign.

He was given the the great ceremonial stages of Capitol Hill and the White House to proclaim Mr Bush's constant, simple, message to voters: that whatever the appearance of chaos on the ground, Iraq was making steady progress, and that any pull-out now would have disastrous consequences.

The President vowed that the US would not, and could not, leave Iraq until the job was done. Nor could there be any negotiating with the radical militants who had abducted Mr Bigley.

The forceful message from Washington contrasted with the increasingly desperate pleas for mercy yesterday from Mr Bigley's family.

In a televised message to his captors, Mr Bigley's mother Lil, 86, begged for her son to be sent home alive, just an hour after Tony Blair had telephoned the family for a second time this week.

Mr Bush said he was "disgusted" by the beheading earlier this week of the two Americans who had been kidnapped along with the British hostage. But, he stressed, "I'm not going to yield."

Iraq was part of the war on terror, and if America failed there, it's own security would be imperilled; undefeated, the insurgents there could "plot and plan attacks elsewhere."

This was Mr Allawi's line too. Yesterday demonstrated how closely the two men's fortunes are bound together.

Mr Allawi's success is vital to Mr Bush's own re-election campaign - but the Iraqi prime minister must rely on the US military for his very survival.

Even in style the two men resembled each other.

The elections scheduled by the end of January would go ahead as planned, he declared, brushing aside the doubts of so many experts.

"They won't be perfect," he conceded, "but they will take place and they will be free and fair."

For Mr Allawi, his country is a glass three-quarters full, not three quarters empty. Of Iraq's 18 provinces '14 or 15' were utterly safe, he proclaimed, glossing over the major towns that were in insurgent hands.

Mr Bush even claimed to have seen polls suggesting that Iraqis felt that things were going better in their own violence-scarred land than Americans did about the course of events in the US.

Mr Allawi's appearance in the US came at a pivotal moment, when Iraq has turned into the campaign's all-consuming issue. Mr Bush is under withering daily attack from his Democratic opponent John Kerry, for his alleged mishandling of the crisis.

Loudly applauded by Republicans on Capitol Hill, Mr Allawi delivered what he called 'three messages' that in effect were the central messages of Mr Bush's own re-election bid.

The Prime Minister and the interim government in Baghdad were succeeding, America was to be thanked for its assistance in Iraq, and, thirdly, the world was better off without Saddam Hussein.

He too re-iterated that no deals could be made with those holding Mr Bigley.

"When governments negotiate with terrorists, everyone in the free world suffers. Abu Musab Zarqawi (believed to be the leader of the group holding the Briton) was not alone.

Although the President for once did not mention Mr Kerry by name yesterday, the indirect target of his remarks was clear. And the Democrat wasted no time in delivering his own riposte, even before Mr Bush walked out with Mr Allawi into the Rose Garden.

Campaigning in the pivotal state of Ohio, Mr Kerry accused the President of lying about the true state of affairs in Iraq.

"America needs leadership that tells the truth," he said. It was "a disgrace" that the secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) had not come clean about what was happening - and a disgrace that the President did not held anyone responsible.

The general assumption here - though the White House cannot admit as much - is that as soon as the elections are out of the way, a second Bush administration would launch a major offensive against insurgent strongholds in Iraq, to clear the path for elections.

- INDEPENDENT