Senate Corners Bush Over Troop Increase

George Bush today was facing further political isolation over his policy on Iraq after top Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed on a provisional resolution opposing a troop increase.

The White House has been lobbying fiercely to head off such a resolution and its failure to do so underlines the unpopularity of Mr Bush's plan to send an extra 21,500 troops to Iraq.

Several proposals had been circulating in the Senate, but the Democratic chairman of the senate armed services committee, Carl Levin, and his predecessor, the Republican senator John Warner, have managed to craft a resolution designed to attract maximum support from both parties.

Their joint resolution expresses the Senate's opposition to Mr Bush's "surge" in military numbers in Iraq but would protect funding for troops already there.

The proposal drops Democratic wording that the troop increase is against the national interest and also leaves out an earlier provision by Mr Warner suggesting Senate support for some additional troops.

Although non-binding, the very fact that such a resolution will be debated in the Senate, which has 51 Democrats and 49 Republicans, is a telling sign of Mr Bush's increasing political isolation and loss of authority.

But not all Republicans are expected to back the proposal as some believe that the Bush plan should be given a chance.

House Democratic leaders are to follow suit with a proposal next week similar to Mr Warner's plan. But the Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has hinted at a tougher measure, with binding legislation that would begin bringing US troops home.

Mr Bush yesterday shrugged off criticism of his plan, saying he hoped lawmakers would give US forces what they needed to get the job done.

"I don't feel abandoned," Mr Bush said on Fox News. "And what do you expect? When times are good, there's millions of authors of the plan. When times are bad, there's one author, and that would be me."