The war in Iraq is breeding deep resentment of the United States that is likely to get worse before it gets better, federal intelligence analysts conclude in a report at odds with President George W. Bush's talk of a world growing safer.

The bleak report was declassified and released on Tuesday on Bush's orders after weekend leaks caused an uproar over its findings that seemed so out of step with the Bush administration's reassurances.

Compiled from the judgments of the top US analysts, the document concludes that despite serious damage to the leadership of al-Qaida, the threat from Islamic extremists has spread both in numbers and in geographic reach.

Bush and his top advisers have said the formerly classified assessment of global terrorism supported their arguments that the world is safer because of the war. But more than three pages of stark judgments that warn of the spread of terror contrasted with the administration's glass-half-full declarations.

"If this trend continues, threats to US interests at home and abroad will become more diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide," the document says. "The confluence of shared purpose and dispersed actors will make it harder to find and undermine jihadist groups."

The intelligence assessment, completed in April, has stirred a heated election-season argument over the course of US national security in the years since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Virtually all assessments of the current situation were bad. The report's few positive notes were couched in conditional terms, depending on successful completion of difficult tasks ahead for the United States and its allies. In one example, analysts concluded that more responsive political systems in Muslim nations could erode support for Islamic militants.

Bush ordered a declassified section of the secret report released after several days of criticism sparked by portions that were leaked to the news media during the weekend. Asked about those on Tuesday, Bush said critics who believe the Iraq War has worsened terrorism are naive and mistaken.

"To suggest that if we weren't in Iraq we would see a rosier scenario, with fewer extremists joining the radical movement, requires us to ignore 20 years of experience," Bush said.

The unclassified document said:

The increased role of Iraqis in managing the operations of al-Qaida in Iraq might lead the terror group's veteran foreign fighters to refocus their efforts outside that country.

While Iran and Syria are the most active state sponsors of terror, many other countries will be unable to prevent their resources from being exploited by terrorists.

The underlying factors that are fuelling the spread of the extremist Muslim movement outweigh its vulnerabilities. These factors are entrenched grievances and a slow pace of reform in home countries, rising anti-US sentiment and the Iraq war.

Groups "of all stripes" increasingly will use the Internet to communicate, train, recruit and obtain support.

White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend immediately took issue with one of the report's most damning conclusions: that the number of Islamic extremists has increased.

"I don't think there's any question that there's an increase in rhetoric," she said. But "I think it's difficult to count the number of true jihadists that are willing to commit murder or kill themselves in the process."

The intelligence assessment also lays out weaknesses of the movement that analysts say must be exploited if its spread is to be slowed. For instance, they note that extremists want to see the establishment of strict Islamic governments in Arab countries, which they say would be unpopular with most Muslims.

The report also argues that the loss of key al-Qaida leaders in "rapid succession" probably would cause the group to fracture.

Source: China Daily