Bush axes generals as he seeks a fresh start over Iraq

The White House is scrambling to complete a major new Iraq policy package for the President to unveil in a speech to the nation next week.

When Mr Bush visited the Pentagon for a classified briefing on Iraq last month, he warned his commanders: 'What I want to hear from you is how we're going to win, not how we're going to leave.'

With Donald Rumsfeld, the chief architect of the unpopular war, now replaced

by former CIA boss Robert Gates as Secretary of Defence, there will be a virtually complete change of top U.S. officials responsible for conducting the war and dealing directly with the Americanbacked Iraqi government in Baghdad.

Huge opposition to the war in Congress

and among the American public, combined with increasing sectarian violence in Iraq and mounting U.S. dead of more than 3,000 has forced the dramatic changes.

General John Abizaid, the head of Central Command and military commander for the Middle East, is being replaced by head of Pacific Command Admiral William Fallon.

And General George Casey, commander of the multinational force in Iraq, is handing over to General David Petraeus.

Abizaid and Casey opposed boosting troop numbers in Iraq.

But Mr Bush is set to reject this idea next week and move in the opposite direction by sending up to 20,000 more soldiers in a last 'surge' to defeat the terrorists, particularly around Baghdad.

Such a move will anger many who want the U.S. to leave Iraq.

Senator Carl Levin, the new Democratic chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has called on Mr Bush to set a timetable of four to six months for withdrawing most U.S. forces.

On the diplomatic front, Mr Bush is appointing envoy to Pakistan Ryan Crocker as the new ambassador to Iraq, replacing Zalmay Khalilzad - who will be nominated to become U.S. ambassador to the UN.

Mr Crocker is likely to take a much harder line with Iraqi prime minister Nouri al Maliki and push the Iraqi army into confrontation with heavily-armed Shi'ite militias wreaking havoc.

Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte is being demoted to become deputy to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and will be replaced by Admiral John McConnell.

Hard-nosed Admiral McConnell is expected to start a new drive to kill or capture Al Qaeda head

Osama bin Laden. The musical chairs in Washington and Iraq came as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday accused the U.S. of obstructing peace between Israel and its old enemy Syria.

Referring to Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert, he said: 'I believe America is preventing Olmert from achieving peace with Syria.'

The U.S. says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad allows weapons and fighters to cross its border into Iraq to support the insurgency. It has also led Western efforts to isolate Syria over its alleged role in the assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri. Syria denies both charges.

Mr Mubarak urged Mr Olmert to test Syria's peaceful intentions to find out whether it would thaw relations with Israel, adding: 'Bring the truth to light. Why say no to a peace offering?'