A ROADSIDE bomb that seriously wounded an American TV news anchor pushed the daily carnage in Iraq back to the top of the agenda yesterday, 24 hours before President Bush was due to give his State of the Union address.

Surgeons removed shrapnel from the head and neck of Bob Woodruff, the 44-year-old co-anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight, after the explosion 12 miles (20km) north of Baghdad on Sunday.

Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, who also suffered head injuries, were standing in the open hatch of an Iraqi military vehicle when the bomb detonated. They underwent surgery in Iraq before being flown to a US military base in Germany for further treatment. Doctors said that both men were in a serious but stable condition, adding that body armour had probably saved their lives.

The attack was leading American news bulletins yesterday as the President put the final touches to an address that was being billed as a relaunch for his beleaguered second term.

There was further unwelcome news for Mr Bush as al-Jazeera television showed a new video of American journalist Jill Carroll, who was taken hostage in Iraq on January 7. She was seen wearing a headscarf and crying. Mr Bush was also labelled a “butcher” in a tape believed to be from Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda’s deputy leader, shown on al-Jazeera yesterday. He said that recent airstrikes targeting him had killed only innocent people and threatened new terror attacks in return.

Opinion polls show that Mr Bush’s approval ratings are stuck between 40 and 43 per cent after a year in which his Administration has been beset by concerns about Iraq, the economy and the poor handling of Hurricane Katrina, as well as a growing scandal over the Republican lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.

The White House has promised that the speech will be more thematic than last year, when it focused on detailed, but ill-starred, plans for social security reform.

Mr Bush, who is likely to be buoyed by the confirmation of Samuel Alito by the Senate as a Supreme Court Justice, struck a determinedly optimistic note after a meeting of his Cabinet yesterday. He said: “I can’t tell you how upbeat I am about our future, just so long as we’re willing to lead.”

He said that much of his speech would deal with domestic initiatives on healthcare, energy and education, as well as the security agenda for “spreading the peace”.

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