Bush considering troop increase in Iraq

WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush is considering increasing the number of US troops in Iraq as he mulls a different strategy for fighting the unpopular war, the White House confirmed on Tuesday.

Asked whether Bush was actively looking at that possibility, which media accounts say could result in tens of thousands more US troops in Iraq, spokesman Tony Snow told reporters: "It's something that's being explored."

The US president has come under mounting pressure to change course in Iraq after an election in which his Republicans lost control of the US Congress and after a high-powered commission warned his current approach was failing.

"The president has not made a decision on the way forward, and he has asked military commanders to consider a range of options, and they are doing so," said Snow.

His comments came after the Pentagon warned that violent attacks in Iraq have soared to the highest level on record and that Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia poses the single biggest threat to stability.

And the Washington Post reported today that top US military officials were questioning a White House plan to send between 15,000 and 30,000 more US troops to Iraq for up to eight months.

The paper, citing unnamed US officials familiar with the "intense" debate, said the Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously disagree with the plan, in part because the force's mission has not been defined.