PRESIDENT BUSH won a mandate for war with Iraq yesterday after he carried Republicans to an historic victory in America’s congressional elections.

Hours after his party seized control of the Senate and increased its majority in the House of Representatives, Mr Bush set the clock ticking for military action against President Saddam Hussein.

Officials tabled a final draft resolution at the United Nations in New York that will establish a series of “trip-wires” for an attack should Baghdad fail to co-operate with UN weapons inspectors.

The Administration will press for a Security Council vote tomorrow. The resolution is expected to win overwhelming approval from the 15-strong Security Council, though President Chirac of France and Russia’s President Putin were still calling last night for the removal of “certain ambiguities”.

As it stands, the resolution is a compromise that frees America of the need for a second UN resolution before going to war, but promises that any Iraqi violations would first be “assessed” in the Security Council.

In Washington, Mr Bush remained behind closed doors, declining the chance to proclaim publicly his momentous win in Tuesday’s mid-term elections. But opponents and analysts said the Republicans’ victory had far-reaching international implications.

Tom Daschle, the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, acknowledged that the vote had been a referendum on the War on Terror, Iraq, US foreign policy and national security. “The President made that his drumbeat,” he said.

David Phillips, a senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said: “The election is a war mandate. The American people wanted to show solidarity with the Bush Administration’s war against terrorism and their support for the White House’s national security approach. War with Iraq was already likely. It is now inevitable unless Saddam fully complies with his international obligations.”

The congressional results saw Mr Bush vastly strengthen his hand across the board, giving him the clear-cut personal mandate that the sour, contested result of the 2000 presidential election had not.

The Republican gains defied historical trends that usually see the President’s party punished in mid-term elections. Much of the credit went to Mr Bush, who defied warnings and gambled with his own prestige and the cross-party support he has enjoyed as a wartime President. He spent the past week criss-crossing the country in a tireless campaign blitz. His work paid handsome dividends.

Ari Fleischer, Mr Bush’s spokesman, said the results marked “a big victory” for the President in which he overcame growing public concerns about the stuttering US economy — the Federal Reserve gave a gloomy appraisal of business and consumer confidence yesterday as it cut rates by half a point to 1.25 per cent, the lowest for 40 years.

Mr Fleischer said Mr Bush had decided not to appear in public out of “graciousness”. The President instead adopted a business-as-usual tone, telephoning several senior Democrats to encourage them to work with Republicans on Capitol Hill.

In New York, Mr Bush’s victory also looked set to clinch UN approval for a tough new inspections regime in Iraq. “The elections will strengthen the President’s hand in trying to move the international community. He got a historic, resounding endorsement,” Nancy Soderberge, a senior member of President Clinton’s National Security Council, said.

“It sends a strong message to Saddam that President Bush has got support. It could send a message that the game’s up. The Russians, the French and the Arabs will tell Iraq there are no checks and balances on President Bush.”

Diplomats expect the resolution to be approved overwhelmingly by tomorrow night with at least 12 and possibly 14 of the 15 Security Council members voting in favour with only Syria holding out.

Six changes for Britain and the world

1 The remarkable Republican victory should mean a fresh wave of tax reform that would provide extra economic stimulus for the US (and Britain) next year. This initiative, combined with the dramatic reduction in US interest rates announced by the Federal Reserve yesterday, will help to counter-balance worrying trends in the international economy.

2 The President will be capable of seeking a free trade agenda worldwide, probably starting with an extension of the North American Free Trade Agreeement (Nafta).

3 Overseas leaders will assume that the President is almost guaranteed re-election. This will immensely strengthen his position across a range of major international institutions. He is likely to outlast President Chirac, Gerhard Schröder, and perhaps Tony Blair.

4 Congress will award the President increased authority to pursue the War on Terror as he sees fit. Attacks of the sort that occurred in Yemen this week may become commonplace around the world.

5 Mr Bush now has a domestic mandate to deal with Iraq as he wishes. If Saddam Hussein engages in even the most limited obstruction of UN weapons inspectors then the US, with Britain in tow, will move quickly towards military action.

6 If the President wants to return to the Middle East peace process he can do so with fewer domestic constraints. In practice, any new American blueprint will await the result of elections in Israel and a clear outcome of the Iraq conflict.

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