US to vote on Iraq measures

Washington: A US House of Representatives vote due later on Friday is likely to condemn the recent surge of US troops in Iraq.

The House will vote on a non-binding resolution opposing President George W. Bush's decision to send an extra 21,500 US troops to Iraq in an attempt to restore stability.

The vote comes after days of fierce debate on the issue in what has been the first full debate in the House since the Democrats took control of Congress in November.

John Murtha, a war critic who chairs the House of Representatives panel that oversees military spending, said he planned to restrict war funding in a way that would effectively stop the troop increase, and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid scheduled a new vote to confront Bush over Iraq.

The resolution states that the House "will continue to support and protect" troops in Iraq, but that it "disapproves" of the troop increase.

The move comes as a new poll showed public support for the Iraq war is continuing to fall, with 53 per cent of Americans believing the US should bring its troops home as soon as possible, the highest number since the war began.