Bush lays out Iraq policy shift

Bush, with an eye to the November 2004 presidential election, has resolved to ask the United Nations for more assistance.

As the cost of American financing Iraq's reconstruction mounts and troop numbers remain stretched, Bush has instructed Secretary of State Colin Powell to support a UN Security Council resolution that would pave the way for a greater UN role in Iraq.

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The Bush administration hopes the resolution will offer some relief to the 130,000-odd US troops deployed in the war-torn country.

Bush was to lay out his change of heart to the American public in a speech scheduled for 8:30 PM Sunday in Washington (0030 GMT Monday).

Donald Rumsfeld, wrapping up a three-day inspection of Iraq on Saturday evening, insisted the Iraqi people take more responsibility for security amid the chaos.

But he also acknowledged the litany of daily attacks on coalition troops may have been rooted in the US failure to chase down Saddam's forces during the war and to anticipate the type of problems it would face afterwards.

Before leaving Iraq for Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said, "One of the things that took place in this country that I think contributed to the circumstances we are in today -- the security circumstance -- was that the war was never finished.

"Most of the battles that took place were south. As Baghdad was approached, the forces north of Baghdad fought for a period but at some point melted into the countryside.

"As a result there are still Baathist elements that are there causing the security problem," he said.

Two surface-to-air missiles were fired at a US military C-141 transport plane Saturday as it was taking off from Baghdad airport, hours before Rumsfeld's departure.

"This morning two SAMs were fired at a C-141 taking off from Baghdad airport," a senior US defense official said. "They detonated before they ever reached the plane."

Despite such close shaves, coalition ground forces commander Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez insisted he had no need of reinforcements in Iraq.

Sanchez acknowledged that his forces had faced some 15 attacks a day over the past five days, but said that in half of those the assailants used mortars or remotely detonated bombs and never came close enough to be engaged.

Meanwhile, more British troops headed for Iraq from a base on Cyprus, bringing their number in the war-torn country to a total of 10,620.

"They are going to be reinforcing the multinational force in the southeast based in Basra and they are going to be involved in a variety of tasks, all of them related to security," British military spokesman Major Niall Greenwood said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told reporters Saturday that Ankara and Washington had agreed that Turkish troops would be responsible for a separate sector and be under Turkish command, should Ankara decide to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq.