Bush vows to disarm Iraq despite allies' reluctance

President Bush expressed frustration Tuesday with allies that are reluctant to wage war against Iraq, saying that Saddam Hussein has been given "ample time" to disarm and pledging anew to bind with like-minded world leaders to confront Baghdad.

Bush, after a meeting with economists on his tax-cutting proposal, responded Tuesday to reporters' questions about suggestions from allies, including France and Germany, that they would wage a major diplomatic fight to prevent the United Nations Security Council from passing a war resolution against Iraq. Bush said he will lead a "coalition of the willing" to disarm Iraq, if necessary, as aides said he is willing to do so without the United Nations.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said Tuesday that the United States "will not go it alone," although he declined to list the countries that have pledged support to Bush. But British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has backed the U.S. stance of launching military action without U.N. support, said Tuesday: "We must not give a signal to Saddam that there is a way out of this. There is no way out for Saddam on this issue."

Bush Tuesday signed an executive order formalizing the role of the White House Office of Global Communications, which works to improve America's image abroad by better conveying U.S. policies. The office played a central role in generating a document to be released later Tuesday that catalogues administration charges on how Iraq has long tried to deceive the international community.

The Office of Global Communications has been up and running for at least six months, quietly working with foreign news media outlets to get the American message out. It was an outgrowth of an earlier administration effort to build public support overseas for the war on terrorism. Bush's signature on the executive order Tuesday will make the office more effective, said Tucker Eskew, who oversees the office of about a dozen people. The order reflects the importance that Bush "places on conveying America's message to the world," Fleischer said.

Meanwhile, at least one gunman opened fire Tuesday on an SUV carrying two American civilians near a U.S. military camp north of Kuwait City, killing one and wounding the other in what the U.S. Embassy called a terrorist attack. The men, contractors working for the U.S. military, were the first civilians to come under fire in recent attacks on Americans in Kuwait.

Their vehicle was ambushed and riddled with bullets at a stoplight near Camp Doha, a military installation serving as a base for 17,000 troops, where 8,000 American civilians also live. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, in which the assailant or assailants fired from behind roadside bushes and then fled.