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Bush urges more money, international involvement in Iraq 
US President George W. Bush on Sunday called for more international involvement in Iraq and asked US Congress for 87 billion US dollars to fund post-war operations there amid mounting casualties and escalating costs for the United States. 

"Members of the United Nations now have an opportunity, and the responsibility, to assume a broader role in assuring that Iraq becomes a free and democratic nation," Bush said in a nationally broadcast speech. 

He said he had directed US Secretary of State Colin Powell to introduce a new Security Council resolution which would authorize the creation of a US-led multinational force in Iraq. 

Last week, the Untied States presented the draft resolution to the Security Council members. 

"I recognize that not all of our friends agreed with our decision to enforce the Security Council resolutions and remove Saddam Hussein from power," Bush said from the White House's ornate Cabinet Room. 

"Yet we cannot let past differences interfere with present duties," Bush said. "Terrorists in Iraq have attacked representatives of the civilized world, and opposing them must be the cause of the civilized world." 

Many countries, including France, Germany, Russia and India, have refused to commit troops to the stabilizing efforts in Iraq under the current UN mandate. 

The US president insisted the US troops in Iraq was "appropriate to their mission" but said military commanders were seeking a third multinational division. 

There are now 21,000 non-American troops led by the British and the Poles in Iraq, supporting a US force of about 140,000. 

In his speech, Bush also asked US Congress for 87 billion dollars for the reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. 

"Our strategy in Iraqi will require new resources," he said. "We have conducted a thorough assessment of our military and reconstruction needs in Iraq and also in Afghanistan." 

Bush said the money he asked "will cover ongoing military and intelligence operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, which we expect will cost 66 billion dollars over the next year." 

Calling Iraq the "central front" in the war on terrorism, the US president said "enemies of freedom" must be defeated in Iraq. 

Urging the Americans to be patient, he said that "this will take time and require sacrifice." 

"Yet we will do what is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom and to make our own nation more secure," Bush said. 

The budget request for Iraq came at a time when Bush was under criticism from Democrats and some Republicans for not having a clear plan in Iraq and for refusing to disclose how much the war would cost the US taxpayers. 

US Defense Department officials have said US military operations in Iraq are costing about 3.9 billion dollars monthly. Lawmakers said the military operations and reconstruction in Iraq together cost an estimated 4.5 billion dollars a month. 

This is Bush's first prime-time televised speech from the White House on Iraq since the start of hostilities in March, and his first broadcast address to the American people on the subject since May 1, when he announced an end to major combat operations. 

Since then, there have been both mounting casualties and escalating costs for the United States. 

War against terrorism to last generations: US official 
Tom Ridge, the first United States Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in Italy Sunday that the war against international terrorism will last several generations. 

Speaking in Cernobbio, the northern town in Italy, after talks with Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu on Saturday, Ridge said "the war against terrorism will be long and will last several generations." 

He also commented on a proposal by European Union foreign ministers to hold a European Memorial Day in honor of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC. 

The proposal was launched Friday, during an informal meeting of the EU foreign ministers in the Italian lakeside resort of Riva del Garda. 

Ridge said Americans would respond with gratitude and appreciation if the Memorial Day were held.

France calls on US to "change logic" over Iraq 
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin Friday called on the United States to "change logic" over Iraq from occupation to sovereignty when explaining France and Germany's disapproval of the US-drafted United Nations resolution on Iraq. 

"The American draft witnesses a more marked willingness to be inscribed in the framework of the United Nations, which goes in the right direction," said de Villepin in an interview published in Le Figaro on Friday. 

"However, the text does not modify the current framework fundamentally. It remains essentially inspired by a logic of security and does not take enough consideration of the political necessity to give the sovereignty back to Iraq rapidly by transferring the executive power to its institutions," he said. 

"And the draft resolution does not give enough responsibilities to the United Nations in the transition process," he added. 

On Thursday, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the United States in its Tuesday draft proposal did not go far enough in transferring political control of Iraq to the Iraqis or give the United Nations a strong enough role in the proposed multinational force. 

"The conviction of France is that we must proceed with the transfer of political power to the Iraqis immediately. We can do nothing without the Iraqis, this is the veritable starting point," said de Villepin in the interview. 

He said Chirac and Schroeder shared common positions on the Iraqi issue following their meeting in the German city of Dresden on Thursday. 

"We propose a global approach allowing to pass from a logic of occupation to a logic of sovereignty. Concretely, we must give back to the Iraqis the control of their own fate," said de Villepin. 

On consultations within the United Nations Security Council foran acceptable resolution, the French minister reiterated that talks will continue and France will stick to its own position. 

"We want neither half measures nor ambiguous solution. France is ready to take its responsibilities in Iraq, but we must do it in a framework that has all chances of efficiency," he said. 

"This implies that we will learn lessons of last months all together. The Americans and the French agree that the status quo is not acceptable," he added.