US:The White House has threatened to veto the latest Democratic proposal to fund the Iraq war, which the House of Representatives is due to vote on today.
The new Bill would fund the war for almost three months, but president George Bush would have to report to Congress in July on progress in Iraq before further funds were approved.
Democrats believe they have enough votes in the House to approve the measure, which would immediately provide $42.8 billion (€31.6 billion) in war funding and does not include a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
Mr Bush last month vetoed a Bill that linked war funding to a plan to withdraw most US combat troops by next year and demanded a clean Bill without restrictions and without extra spending for domestic projects included in the original Bill.
Democrats have removed both the timetable and most of the domestic spending, which will now be part of a separate Bill, but White House spokesman Tony Snow said yesterday that the new proposal remained unacceptable.
"We want the troops funded through the fiscal year," Mr Snow said.
Republicans in Congress accused Democrats of being more interested in "partisan politics" than in funding the troops in Iraq, and the House Bill also received a lukewarm reception from Senate Democrats. During an unannounced visit to Baghdad yesterday, vice-president Dick Cheney said Congress must not attempt to impose any conditions or restrictions on the administration's conduct of the war.
"We still believe that it's important that funding for the supplemental for operations here in Iraq not contain conditions that limit either the flexibility of our commanders on the ground in Iraq or interfere with the president's constitutional prerogatives as commander-in-chief, which is the general principle that we've adhered to and it's one of the reasons the president vetoed the original bill," he said.
Democratic leaders in both houses will continue to negotiate with the White House in an effort to avoid another veto, but the party's room for manoeuvre is limited by a strong anti-war group within Congress that reflects public opposition to the continued US presence in Iraq.
A new Gallup poll published yesterday showed that six Americans in 10 support setting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq regardless of what happens there, and only 22 per cent accept the president's argument that American forces in Iraq are preventing new terrorist attacks on the US.
Military officials say it will be several more months before they can determine whether the "surge" in troops authorised by Mr Bush is helping quell sectarian and other violence. Announcing the deployment of 35,000 more troops in August, top commanders said this week that the increased troop levels may need to last until next spring.
Democrats are attempting to end the war in Iraq through political pressure, without directly cutting off funding for the troops, while simultaneously keeping a diverse caucus as united as possible.
"We have to bring members together around a position that we can then discuss with the White House," House speaker Nancy Pelosi said this week.
Republicans fear that the Democratic strategy is to force them to vote on the war as often as possible, as the president and the war become more unpopular and next year's elections move closer.
All the leading Democratic presidential candidates favour a plan to withdraw from Iraq, while the leading Republicans are still supporting Mr Bush's strategy.