Most Iraqis indifferent to Bush or Kerry

Almost 60 percent of Iraqis say they do not care whether incumbent President George W. Bush or his Democratic challenger John Kerry wins the US elections, according to a recent poll by the Iraqi Centre for Research and Strategic Studies.

"Today Iraq, tomorrow Syria and then may be Iran," says Khalil, 50, as he dips a brush in a small pot of water and lathers up the face of one of his customers.

"It is one big master plan to dominate the Middle East so it does not make a difference who wins the elections."

A checkpoint manned by the Iraqi national guard and US troops at the entrance to Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace, now an annex to the US embassy, is reflected in the large mirrors in Khalil's shop.

With polling day in the United States on Tuesday, Iraq remains the main point of contention between Bush and Kerry.

The senator from Massachusetts has accused the president of invading the country for the wrong reasons, alienating many of America's allies with his policies there and of not being able to account for 350 tonnes of high explosives which most experts say went missing from a weapons depot south of Baghdad after the fall of the former regime.

Bush said Kerry's lack of conviction on Iraq was sending the wrong message to insurgents.

But as Iraq casts its shadow over the finish line to the US race, most Iraqis are fretting over a security situation which has only deteriorated since Saddam's statue was toppled in Baghdad's Al-Fardus (paradise) Square some 19 months ago.