Powell will take the rap for failed diplomacy

Recrimination at the failure of US diplomacy has begun in Washington, one source close to the administration admitting yesterday: "This has been the worst American diplomatic debacle of our lifetime."

Administration sources suggest that this is the prelude to a postwar bloodletting in which the secretary of state, Colin Powell, will be the fall guy.

He will be blamed for encouraging George Bush to take the issue to the UN, for failing to grasp the extent and power of French and Russian opposition, failing to anticipate that the weapons inspectors would not adhere to the US's timetable, and for his puzzling refusal to pursue the kind of shuttle diplomacy normal in the state department for the past 30 years.

"There's a recognition this has not been our finest diplomatic hour," the New York Times quoted a senior official as saying on Friday, adding that his voice was "dripping with understatement".

In the Washington Post James Mann of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies described the administration's foreign policy as "a major intellectual failure" that would have consequences long after the war is over.

This aspect of the crisis has finally given Democratic contenders for the 2004 presidential election - most of them terrified to attack the president directly over Iraq - an issue they can hammer home without having their patriotism impugned.