Iraq votes: Bush hails 'resounding success'

WASHINGTON - President Bush described yesterday's elections in Iraq as a "resounding success", and promised that the US would continue its efforts to stabilise the country and train Iraqis to take over their own security.

"The people of Iraq have spoken to the world, and the world is hearing the voice of freedom from the centre of the Middle East," Bush said in a three-minute televised statement from the White House.

He voiced the tangible relief and satisfaction of the administration that the vote appeared to have gone off successfully and that the dire threats of the insurgents to completely disrupt the vote had not materalised.

Both the President and Condoleezza Rice, his new Secretary of State, praised the bravery of Iraqis who went to polling stations despite the continuing violence and intimidation. "Some Iraqis were killed while exercising their rights as citizens," Mr Bush said.

But in turning out to cast their votes, the people had "firmly rejected" the "antidemocratic ideology" of terrorists. The elections, Ms Rice said, had gone "better than expected," despite uncertainty over the precise size of the turnout.

The insurgents were "terrible thugs," who would not succeed in their goal of "stopping the progress of democracy in Iraq".

Mr Bush also expressed his sorrow at the loss of American troops, and of the British soldiers killed yesterday in the crash of a Hercules transport near Baghdad.

The election alone, he warned, would not end violence in Iraq. But US forces would continue to training Iraqis "so this rising democracy can eventually take responsibility for its own security".

As the administration set about presenting the election in the best possible light, senior Democrats were more cautious.

Senator John Kerry, Mr Bush's defeated rival in the November 2 presidential election, warned that it was hard to describe the vote as legitimate, "when whole portions of the country can't vote and doesn't vote".

Mr Kerry's Senate colleague, Edward M. Kennedy, declared that the White House must "look beyond the election." He reiterated his call for the immediate withdrawal of some troops, and the start of negotiations for a phased reduction of the US military presence.

Even Ms Rice conceded that after the election the Iraqis still had "a long road" ahead of them.

- INDEPENDENT