Activists slam plan to boost troop strength

The Hague/San Francisco/London: Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot on Friday lashed out at US President George W. Bush's new strategy for Iraq saying extra troops would lead nowhere, the ANP news agency reported.

"Just sending an extra 20,000 troops to Iraq is what we've been doing for years. It never got any results," Bot told journalists after a Cabinet meeting here.

Bush's new strategy has been widely criticised in the United States, where the public is against sending more troops into the country nearly four years after the 2003 US-led invasion.

Bot said he missed any proposals from the US President to involve Iraq's neighbours in a plan to stabilise the region. The foreign minister stressed that the Netherlands would keep in contact with countries like Syria and Lebanon.

The Netherlands sent about 1,400 troops to southern Iraq after the 2003 invasion. But the move was highly unpopular at home and the soldiers were withdrawn in 2005.

Activists angered by Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq staged anti-war demonstrations in several major cities.

Jan Rogers, 58, was among several hundred people who gathered in a bustling San Francisco shopping area during rush hour on Thursday.

She watched Bush's televised speech on Wednesday night and said he "doesn't seem to get it".

"The rest of the country is shouting, 'Stop this insanity', and I think he's just trying to save his presidency and his legacy. But he's just on the wrong path," Rogers said.

Britain's Financial Times on Friday blasted US President George W. Bush's new strategy for Iraq as a "fiasco", which could trigger conflict in the wider region, likening it to the Vietnam war.