Bush makes Iraq pledge

George Bush moved today to counter growing alarm over Iraq with a fresh UN resolution guaranteeing the country full sovereignty next month.

In a desperate attempt to halt his plummeting poll ratings, the US President was also making a prime-time television address to reassure voters that he has a clear plan to hand over power to Iraqis on 30 June.

The PR offensive follows the White House's worst weeks since the fall of Saddam, with spiralling violence and the Iraqi prisoner scandal undermining the morale of troops and the faith of the public.

Today's draft UN resolution made clear that an interim Iraqi government will have control over the new multi-national security force, but in practice it will have to be led by an American general.

The draft resolution also hands total control over the nation's oil reserves to local Iraqi leaders.

Circulated to the UN Security Council in New York for the first time, the resolution also grants US and British troops immunity from international prosecution following the handover.

A promise to keep British troops under British law is likely to be used by Tony Blair this week to defend a deployment of thousands of extra soldiers. The Cabinet is expected to decide finally on Thursday the exact make-up of the reinforcements.

Downing Street believes that this week could mark a turning point in the conflict by setting out exact moves to reduce coalition control and build up Iraqi army and police forces ready for an eventual pull-out of Western troops.

President Bush will claim this week real progress in the move to a new Iraq when UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi unveils the members of the new government which will take office on 1 July.

American and British diplomats hope that Mr Brahimi's plans will smooth the path of today's fresh resolution when it comes before the Security Council for formal approval later this month.

In a speech to the Army War College in Pennsylvania, President Bush made the first of six major addresses that he is delivering in the five-week countdown to the handover.

The President was expected to reiterate that there would be no "cutting and running" from the country but to emphasise that Iraqi democracy was the only way forward. Some White House sources suggested that he may even bring forward the date for elections from next January.

But while Britain gave the US-backed resolution its full support, the first public cracks in the coalition emerged in a Foreign Office memo criticising "heavy-handed tactics" by US troops in Fallujah and Najaf.

Even as the President was preparing for peace, US forces killed at least 32 fighters loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in a raid on a mosque in the holy city of Kufa yesterday. The building was being used as a weapons store, according to coalition commanders.

Mr Blair last week warned Cabinet colleagues against expressing open disagreement with the US over Iraq in case it damaged British troops' morale.

He spoke out after Tory leader Michael Howard urged the PM to be more open about any disagreements with America.