Ministers attack US war chaos

Senior British ministers are privately admitting to growing exasperation across government at the lack of a clear and coherent US policy towards Iraq.
The frustration is understood to extend to senior cabinet ministers and even Sir David Manning, the prime minister's chief foreign policy adviser.

It is said no coherent military or political strategy to oust Saddam Hussein has been presented to Downing Street, even though Britain is supposedly the closest ally of George Bush, the US president.

Anxiety in No 10 has been fuelled by the results of private polling commissioned by Tony Blair which it is understood confirms Mr Bush's spectacular unpopularity among British voters.

The dramatic findings reported by Philip Gould, Mr Blair's pollster, have been kept within a tight circle of senior officials and New Labour insiders who refuse to divulge any details.

But some ministers believe Mr Blair is starting to take unnecessary political flak over supposed hard and fast US decisions when in truth Washington has yet to construct any clear policy towards Iraq.

They believe the prime minister may even have sanctioned the revelation of his private doubts when Jordan's King Abdullah told reporters in Washington last week that Mr Blair had confided in him that he has "tremendous concerns" about an Iraq invasion.