"The president has tremendous faith in secretary Rumsfeld and his generals, secretary Rumsfeld's leadership, secretary Rumsfeld's decisions and that's borne out by what the president views as a successful military campaign," a White House official said on condition of anonymity.

Divisions between military and civilian commanders over the size of the force in Iraq and the war strategy have become apparent in a series of articles in the US media over the past week.

The New York Times kept the heat on Rumsfeld Tuesday, publishing articles on accusations from senior military officers that he has interfered to limit the number of battlefield troops in Iraq.

Reporting from the US V Corps headquarters near the Kuwait-Iraq border, the paper referred to "long-simmering tensions" which have "erupted in a series of complaints from officers on the Iraqi battlefield that the Pentagon has not sent enough troops to wage the war as they want to fight it."

"Raw nerves were obvious as officers compared Mr Rumsfeld to Robert McNamara, an architect of the Vietnam war who failed to grasp the political and military realities of Vietnam," the paper said.

SPACE.WIRE