US sees infiltrators entering Iraq as it fails to restore calm

Meanwhile, the debate raged on over whether US and British intelligence exaggerated evidence of Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction in order to win public support to launch the war to topple Saddam Hussein's regime.

Bush, speaking to journalists ahead of a week-long tour to Europe and the Middle East, said Thursday lawlessness in Iraq was inevitable and that it would "take a while" to restore calm.

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"Now there is no question there is lawlessness inside of Baghdad and regions north of Baghdad," he said.

But "we are making progress on all fronts," he added. "A lot of Iraq is improving from the pre-war conditions and that's important to know."

Bush's remarks came as US troops continued to face sporadic attacks, apparently from remnants of Saddam's regime, with several being killed.

Top military commander Lieutenant General David McKiernan said Thursday extra troops might be sent to tackle the continuing strikes by "regime holdouts" in western Iraq.

The struggle to restore stability in Iraq took a new twist Friday when the governing US-led coalition said Islamist hardliners were pouring into Iraq in a bid to destabilise the country, in what appeared to be a clear warning to Iran.

"Fundamentalists under foreign command have entered Iraq with aggressive intent and it is in the interest of the Iraqi people to help the coalition," the coalition said on its Baghdad radio, without specifying from where they came.

The report asked Iraqis to inform the coalition of the whereabouts of any infiltrators.

Washington has already warned Iran, which shares a long border with Iraq, against sending agents into the country or using its influence with Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority to spark opposition to US and British forces.

"There is clear evidence of the Iranians trying to put in place a mechanism for them to exert influence," the top British official in Iraq John Sawers told Britian's visiting Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday.

In recent days Washington has stepped up its criticisms of Iran, accusing it of harboring senior members of the al-Qaeda network and voicing repeated concern over its alleged bid to develop nuclear weapons.

Speculation grew Friday that the public was misled over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction programs, with senior politicians in London and Washington cited in the British press saying that unprecedented intelligence blunders could be to blame. "This could conceivably be the greatest intelligence hoax of all time. I doubt it, but we have to ask," Jane Harman, the senior Democrat on the US's House Select Committee on Intelligence, told The Times newspaper.