Bush forced to defend rising US death toll

George Bush acted at the weekend to address increasing national disquiet over the number of US servicemen being killed in Iraq. More than a quarter of American casualties in Iraq have occurred since the president declared an end to major military combat at the beginning of May.

Another US soldier was killed yesterday, bringing the toll since May 1 to 56. A total of 138 American service personnel died during the war itself.

A second soldier was wounded in yesterday's grenade attack on a US military convoy in Khan Azad, south of Baghdad.

Mr Bush used his weekly radio address to the nation to answer the growing number of questions from commentators on why American troops are continuing to be killed when the country has been told that the war was over.

"The men and women of our military face a continuing risk of danger and sacrifice in Iraq," he said. "Our military is acting decisively against these threats ... Dangerous pockets of the old regime remain loyal to it and they, along with their terrorist allies, are behind deadly attacks."

There are still 146,000 US troops stationed in Iraq, only a few thousand fewer than during the war.

There are political concerns for the president if the killings continue at the present rate into the electoral season next year. Mr Bush still enjoys majority support on his Iraq policy, but this could erode if the US appears to have become embroiled in an unpopular occupation that also leads to regular casualties.

The pressure will ease if US troops in Iraq turn up evidence either of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, or of the former dictators' whereabouts. But the Pentagon yesterday discounted reports that Saddam had been killed by US fire on a convoy in Iraq last week, and that DNA tests were being carried out on remains to identify him.

A Pentagon spokesman said he had "no information" on the story and CNN later reported that Pentagon sources had said Saddam was not believed to have been in the convoy and no such tests were being conducted.