"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," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Divisions between military and civilian commanders over the size of the force needed to disarm and topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and over the battle plan have been front-page news in US dailies for about a week.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that top military officers accuse Rumsfeld of interfering with the planning for war in order to limit the number of troops deployed to Iraq. Rumsfeld has fervently denied the allegations.

With US forces seeking a second wind as they push towards Baghdad, the daily quoted one colonel anonymously as saying that the Defense Secretary "wanted to fight this war on the cheap" and adding "he got what he wanted."

"The Pentagon is a big building and there's a thousand colonels," making it easy to find at least a handful willing to criticize civilian leaders in the newspapers, the aide said.

"We're a free country and everybody is allow to criticize. People have that right," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said later. "The president has faith in the plan, accepts the plan, the plan is working."

Bush will deliver a fresh progress report on the war Thursday during a day-long trip to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, home to many of the 47,000 Marines currently serving in Iraq, said Fleischer.

That visit, coming three days after the US leader touted the war effort to a US Coast Guard crowd in Philadelphia, highlights the president's power to communicate using the "bully pulpit" of the White House to make himself heard about the din of negative media judgements of how the war is going.

Fierce Iraqi resistance, especially guerrilla fighting and the willingness to resort to suicide attacks, as well as overstretched supply lines, have slowed the US-led forces' advance.

And a senior battlefield commander, Lieutenant General William Wallace told The Washington Post in an interview published Friday that logistical problems and unexpected Iraqi tactics would likely draw out the conflict.

"The enemy we're fighting is different from the one we'd war-gamed against," he said, citing overextended supply lines and the willingness of Iraqi forces to launch suicide attacks as well as compel their own soldiers to fight.

Asked whether combat developments in the past week increased the likelihood of a much longer war than some planners had forecast, Wallace told the daily: "It's beginning to look that way."

The White House rejected that notion out of hand, insisted that the Bush administration had never forecast a quick and easy victory over Iraq, and upbraided doubters and those who say the US effort has bogged down.

SPACE.WIRE