President Bush asked the American people and Congress yesterday to show patience with a war that opinion polls suggest is even more unpopular in the United States than it is in Iraq.

Speaking on the day that the war in Iraq entered its fifth year, Mr Bush said that it was “tempting to look at the challenges” and decide “to pack up and go home”. In remarks addressed at Democrats on Capitol Hill, he said that while such a plan “might be satisfying in the the short run”, the long-term consequences would be devastating.

“If American forces were to step back from Baghdad before it is more secure, a contagion of violence could spill out across the entire country. In time, this violence could engulf the region. The terrorists could emerge from the chaos with a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they had in Afghanistan, which they used to plan the attacks of September 11, 2001. For the safety of the American people, we cannot allow this to happen.”

An Opinion Research survey for CNN suggested that support among US voters had dropped from 72 per cent in 2003 to 32 per cent.

Mr Bush said in his televised statement that his strategy of sending in about 30,000 additional US troops to secure Baghdad and Anbar would “need more time to take effect”.

The President, who has repeatedly predicted that America “will prevail” in the war, yesterday used noticeably more conditional and even hypothetical language to describe the prospect of victory.

“Four years after this war began, the fight is difficult, but it can be won. It will be won if we have the courage and resolve to see it through,” he said.

Democrats in the House of Representatives are seeking this week to attach conditions to a $124 billion war funding Bill that would force the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq by autumn next year. Mr Bush has promised to veto any legislation setting a timeliness for withdrawal, saying yesterday that the progress Iraq’s leaders were making should be matched by “important commitments of our own”.

He said that Congress had a responsibility to pass a bill that dis not use funding for our troops as leverage to get special interest spending for their districts.”

– Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam Hussein’s former Vice-President, was hanged last night for crimes against humanity, government officials said.

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