Bush says war 'on track'

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - US President George Bush has pledged never to relent in his war on terror - and that includes refusing to put a deadline on a date for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

Car bombs killed 48 people in Iraq overnight (NZ time), a day after more than 80 died in suicide blasts across the country.

In Saturday's deadliest attack, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle near a crowded condolence tent during a funeral for a Shi'ite tribal sheikh in a small town north of Baghdad.

Addressing US soldiers in Osan, South Korea during a tour of Asia, Bush said US forces would stay in Iraq until victory and rejected critics' calls for a timetable for the withdrawal of the 135,000 US troops.

He quoted a top US commander in Iraq as saying a deadline for a pullout would be "a recipe for disaster", and said that as long as he was president "our strategy in Iraq will be driven by the sober judgment of our military commanders".

"We will fight the terrorists in Iraq, we will stay in the fight until we have achieved the victory that our brave troops have fought for," said Bush.

Bush said there was cause for optimism. In the 2-1/2 years since Saddam Hussein was toppled, he said, Iraqis had elected a transitional government, ratified a constitution and were ready to vote on a permanent government in December.

"Iraq is making amazing progress from the days of being under the thumb of a brutal dictator," he said.

That view contrasts sharply with the feelings of many Iraqis who are frustrated by the lack of progress since Saddam's overthrow, including high unemployment, scant rebuilding, soaring corruption and a widespread lack of security.

Campaigning for the December polls has not begun in earnest, but violence seems to be on the rise, mirroring a surge in guerrilla attacks that took place in the build-up to elections held in January and a referendum in October.

US and Iraqi forces have been conducting operations against Sunni Arab guerrillas throughout western Iraq in recent weeks in an effort to stem the insurgency before the elections and increase the ability of Sunnis to vote.

At the last elections in January, most Sunni Arabs either boycotted or were too scared by insurgent threats to vote, so the minority community, once influential under Saddam, ended up with next to no representation in parliament.

The United States is keen to bolster Sunni participation this time in the hope that greater engagement in politics will draw support away from the insurgency.

The three days of reconciliation talks in Cairo are designed to achieve similar goals and within hours of the start had homed in on the disputes which have dragged Iraq close to civil war.

While Shi'ite Muslim politicians condemned the insurgency, led mainly by Sunni Muslims, a leading Sunni politician said resistance was a legitimate response to US occupation.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said religious extremists who advocated violence had no place in the political process.

ATTACKS MERCILESS

Police Colonel Muthaffar Aboud said 35 people were killed and around 50 wounded in the attack in Abu Sayda, near Baquba, a city about 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad. The wounded were taken to at least two hospitals in Baquba.

Iraqis traditionally set up tents to receive well-wishers at funerals. The fact the funeral was for a well-known local leader suggests the tent would have been packed with mourners.

Earlier, another suicide car bomber targeted a busy market in the Diyala Bridge area just to the south of Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding about 20, the Interior Ministry said.

Two bombs killed five US soldiers patrolling near the northern town of Baiji and wounded another five, the US military said, bringing the number of US troops killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 2,089.

Saturday's attacks followed twin suicide bombings at Shi'ite mosques in northeastern Iraq on Friday, strikes that appeared intent on aggravating the country's sectarian divisions, which have only worsened in the run-up to elections set for December 15.

The blasts in the town of Khanaqin followed two suicide car bomb attacks on a Baghdad hotel popular with journalists and contractors. Friday's violence left 83 people dead and more than 100 wounded, one of the bloodiest days in Iraq in recent months.

In Cairo, several dozen leaders from across Iraq's political and sectarian spectrum met to discuss the country's insurgency and a way forward in talks sponsored by the Arab League.

It was the highest level gathering so far organized between Iraqi government leaders and opposition figures and it got off to a testy start, with Shi'ites and Kurds at odds with Sunnis.

- REUTERS