President Bush, acknowledging that he is considering a deployment of more troops in Iraq, said Wednesday that any expansion of forces will happen only with a defined mission that the military can carry out and win.

The debate over sending more U.S. troops to Iraq intensified Wednesday as President Bush signaled he will listen, but not necessarily defer to, balky military officers.

Sudan must allow a team of U.N. personnel into Darfur and formally accept an international force for the area by year's end or face unspecified U.S. steps next year, a U.S. special envoy said yesterday.

The United States Trade Representative has identified six countries, including India, which could lose duty-free access to the American market in 2007 under a revamped trade programe signed into law by President George W Bush.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that the "next Bill Gates" will come from China, Japan or India, while only one in five believe that he could be a compatriot, says a new poll.

Alarmed by Lashkar-e-Taiba's attempts to set up bases in Manipur, India will ask Myanmar to crack down on camps which have became a common training ground for Pakistan-based terror outfits, as well as north-east insurgent groups.

At least half a dozen explosions were heard early on Wednesday, some in the area of the Green Zone, where Iraq's parliament and the US and British embassies are based.

Police said they found 76 bodies, some of them blindfolded and handcuffed, in several parts of Baghdad on Wednesday. Many of the victims had been shot and some showed signs of torture, a police officer said on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. Sectarian fighting has swept the Iraqi capital this year, and police daily find dozens of bodies.

Iran, whose president said last week that Israel's days were numbered, has called on the UN Security Council to compel the Jewish state to give up its nuclear weapons.

Britain, France and Germany have scrapped plans to impose a United Nations travel ban on Iranian officials who are linked to Tehran's most controversial nuclear activities, a move intended to win Russian support for a U.N. resolution restricting Iran's nuclear trade, according to U.S. and European officials.