The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Peshawar

At least 50 people were killed in renewed sectarian fighting overnight in a remote Pakistani district engulfed by unrest since last week, officials said Saturday.

Heavy fighting broke out at several places in the Parachinar district late Friday and continued throughout the night, a local administration official said.

"We have reports that more than 50 people died in the clashes," the official said, adding that the fighting subsided early Saturday.

Last week rival Shiite and Sunni groups fought fierce gunbattles which left around 112 people dead, forcing the government to deploy troops to restore order.

The sectarian bloodshed adds to concerns facing key US ally President Pervez Musharraf, who is already facing a bloody militant revolt in northern Swat valley and frequent suicide attacks in the rest of the country.

Authorities Saturday clamped a 24-hour curfew on Swat after militants loyal to a pro-Taliban cleric exchanged heavy fire with security forces overnight, officials said.

"There was some fighting late Friday and several militants were killed, but we do not have exact details of casualties," government spokesman Amjad Iqbal said.

The new curfew runs for 24 hours from 2:00pm Saturday, he said.

Earlier Saturday, two suicide bombings targeting security forces killed at least 20 people in the garrison town of Rawalpindi.

AP report adds: Suicide bombers hit a bus carrying intelligence agency employees and also targeted a checkpoint near the headquarters of the Pakistan army on Saturday, killing up to 35 people, several officials said.

The two attackers struck within minutes of each other in Rawalpindi, a garrison city just south of the capital, Islamabad. Two senior intelligence officials - one of them at the scene - said at least 35 people were killed. They asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of their work.

The army said it could only confirm 15 killed in the attack on the bus, in addition to the suicide bomber. It said two security forces personnel were critically injured in the second attack, and the suicide bomber died.

"We suspect that pro-Taliban militants who are fighting security forces in our tribal areas are behind this attack," one intelligence official said, adding the injured and dead were being transported to hospitals.

In the first attack, an explosive-laden Suzuki van rammed a bus carrying employees from the Inter-Services Intelligence agency. The other bomber hit an army checkpoint in another part of the city about 6 miles away, said Mohammed Afzal, a local police official.

The intelligence agent at the scene said the destroyed bus was a 72-seater, but that it was badly overloaded and that more people were believed to be on board. The army said that only 50 people were riding on the bus.

After the blast, troops and police quickly cordoned off the area. They pushed people back and snatched cameras and mobile phones from journalists and bystanders. Agents fanned out across the area, picking up metal bits of what appeared to be the suicide bomber's vehicle.

Shoaib Abbasi, owner of the Oriel guesthouse across from the ISI compound, said that when he came out on the street after the blast the bus was burning fiercely.

"Firemen tried to open the emergency doors while they were dousing the interior, but I can't believe anyone inside survived because of the intensity of the fire," he said.

Hizer Hayat, the owner of a nearby grocery, said the blast occurred at 7:40 a.m. as he was opening the store. "After the explosion, I went out on the street and found the ignition switch for a car amid the debris (which) I later gave to an intelligence agent," he said.

It was the second major attack against the ISI in recent months. On Sept. 4, a suicide attacker blew himself up after boarding a bus carrying ISI's employees, while a roadside bomb went off near a commercial area in Rawalpindi minutes apart, killing at least 25 people.

The latest violence comes as Pakistan remains under a state of emergency, a move by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that has prompted stiff criticism of the military ruler, including from his key Western ally, the United States.

Musharraf declared the state of emergency on Nov. 3, justifying it by citing the escalating danger posed by Islamic extremists, though critics have noted many of his moves have been against political opponents, including members of the judiciary and journalists.

Islamic militants have launched dozens of suicide attacks this year. Most have taken place near the Afghan border, but several have taken place in the country's main cities, raising fears that violent extremism is spreading.

A bomber blew himself up in Rawalpindi on Oct. 30 at a checkpoint several hundred yards from an office of Musharraf, killing seven people. That office was in a building complex known as Army House, about 3 miles from the army headquarters area where Saturday's second blast occurred.

Two weeks earlier, a suicide attack on opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's homecoming parade killed more than 140 people in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi.

Authorities cited the risk of further attacks when they barred Bhutto from holding a rally in Rawalpindi last month against Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule.

Tension between militant groups and the military are at a high because of an ongoing military operation to sweep the followers of a pro-Taliban cleric from the northern Swat valley, where authorities say more than 300 militants have been killed in recent weeks.

AFP, Islamabad

Despite their protests that parliamentary elections will be a sham, Pakistan's political opposition seemed Friday to be lining up for a chance to take part - with one former prime minister readying her candidates and another taking steps to return from exile.

Meanwhile, a pliant Supreme Court installed by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf gave the military ruler further legal cover, ruling that the state of emergency he declared on Nov. 3 was legal. The court on Thursday had ruled that Musharraf could become a civilian president, clearing the way for a new five-year term.

On Saturday, suicide bombers hit a bus carrying intelligence agency employees and a checkpoint near the headquarters of the Pakistan army, killing at least 35 people.

The two attackers struck in Rawalpindi, a garrison city just south of the capital, Islamabad. A senior intelligence official, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work, said at least 35 people were killed.

Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum told The Associated Press that the court decision - which was sent late Friday to the Election Commission for ratification - gave Musharraf until Dec. 1 to step down as army chief and take the oath of office as a civilian president. Qayyum has said Musharraf could quit his army post as early as this weekend, though no date has been set.

The general has repeatedly pledged to give up his military position by the end of the month, in hopes of cooling domestic and foreign criticism of his crackdown, which included the jailing of thousands of opponents and a clampdown on both the judiciary and the country's media. Most opponents have been freed in recent days, and all but one of the news channels are back on the air.

But it was the political maneuvering of two former prime ministers - Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif - that was producing the most intrigue in an ever-shifting political landscape.

Until recently, Pakistan's two main opposition parties - Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and Sharif's faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, known as PML-N - had been discussing a boycott of parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8, saying any vote held under emergency rule lacked legitimacy.

But they have been changing their tune.

Bhutto was in the capital, Islamabad, on Friday as she prepared to submit a list of candidates for the vote ahead of a Monday deadline. While she says she has not made a final decision whether to take part, she indicated in comments Thursday that she did not want to hand Musharraf a "walkover" victory by staying away.

A powerful religious coalition, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, has also said it would file papers and was leaning toward participating in the vote, as long as other opposition parties did too.

Sharif met with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on Friday in an attempt to win support for a return home ahead of the vote.

A senior leader of his party told the AP on Saturday that Sharif would return home Sunday from Saudi Arabia. "Nawaz Sharif and other members of his family are coming back to (the eastern Pakistani city of) Lahore on Sunday," Sadique al-Farooq said.

Speculation that Saudi Arabia wanted Sharif to go home had been rife since Musharraf made a surprise trip to the Saudi capital for talks with Abdullah on Tuesday.

The last time the former prime minister - who was ousted by the general in 1999 and has become one of Musharraf's most vehement critics - tried to return, he was swiftly deported.

But a close aide to Musharraf said Saturday that Sharif would not be sent back to Saudi Arabia, although he provided no further details.

"This time he (Sharif) will not be sent back," said Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a former Cabinet member who remains a close adviser to the general.

A senior official at the presidency told AP on Friday that Musharraf had "softened" his stance toward Sharif, and was hoping for some level of reconciliation, raising the possibility that Musharraf might try to ally himself with the man he toppled, in order to freeze Bhutto out.

"The hope is that he (Sharif) will not act like Benazir Bhutto, who is following the politics of confrontation," the official said. "If he agrees to do it, he will be allowed to return home even before the elections."

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said close associates of Sharif and Musharraf were in touch to see how they could end their feud.

While a complete boycott of the Jan. 8 poll would be disastrous for Musharraf - belying his claims that he has navigated the nation on a path toward democracy - participation by both major opposition parties could prove equally tricky, particularly if they form a coalition against him.

Tariq Azim, a spokesman for the pro-Musharraf PML-Q party, said his party was confident of a good result in the elections.

"We would be happy to face Benazir Bhutto or Nawaz Sharif, or even both together," he told AP. "We are fully prepared. t We will give them a tough fight."

Analysts say Musharraf could play Sharif's return to his advantage - if he can keep the opposition split - by claiming that he has finally brought a measure of real democracy back to Pakistan.

"If the major parties do take part in elections, then the crisis will be largely over because the vote will provide the legitimacy and credibility Musharraf needs," said Ayaz Amir, a former lawmaker who is a columnist for the respected Dawn newspaper. "This fits into what the international backers of Pakistan also want, an orderly transition."

Amir predicted that the emergency imposed on Nov. 3 would be lifted ahead of January's ballot, "because all of the aims of the emergency will have been achieved."

Also Friday, the government condemned the decision by the Commonwealth, a 53-nation grouping comprised mainly of Britain and its former colonies, to suspend its membership. Pakistan said the decision was "unreasonable and unjustified" and failed to appreciate Pakistan's "serious internal crisis."

AFP, Warsaw

Poland's new prime minister outlined ambitious plans for the next four years in his inaugural address Friday, saying he plans to withdraw troops from Iraq next year but also push for stronger relations with NATO.

In a three-hour speech to parliament, Donald Tusk laid out a vision for the country that includes more capitalism - privatization, tax cuts and simplifying business laws - to bolster the economy of this ex-communist country.

While Tusk and his Civic Platform party want to continue the strong friendship with the U.S., he gave a taste of plans that, taken together, would suggest that the country plans to assert more independence in its relations with Washington.

Tusk said that, by the end of next year, Poland would withdraw its 900 troops from Iraq, where it leads an international contingent of about 2,000 soldiers from 10 nations in the south-central part of the country.

"We will carry out that operation with the conviction that we have done more than what our allies - especially the U.S. - had expected from us," he said.

Tusk's call for a pullout came as no surprise. He campaigned on promises to end the unpopular mission, clashing on the issue with his opponent, then-incumbent Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who argued that withdrawing would amount to desertion.

His twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, who is the armed forces' commander in chief, supports staying in Iraq longer and has the power to authorize foreign military missions. But he cannot unilaterally extend a mission the government wants to end.

Poland's mission in Iraq has the president's authorization until the end of the year. Tusk and the president will have to hold talks to decide when and how to end the mission.

Tusk said he planned to keep Poland's 1,200-member force in Afghanistan next year.

U.S. State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez said Friday that the U.S. had been discussing the issue with the new Polish government and was grateful for Poland's contribution.

"Poland had indicated that it will consult fully with the United States and other allies when conducting their withdrawal to ensure that there is not any reduction in stability in the area they are leaving," Vasquez said.

Tusk also said he will resume talks with the U.S. on accepting a U.S. missile defense base in Poland - but only after consulting with NATO and other neighboring countries - signaling a greater hesitancy over the plan than the previous government.

"NATO is the main pillar and guarantor of Poland's security," Tusk said.

U.S.-Polish talks on the missile shield plan began earlier this year under Kaczynski's government, which strongly supported hosting a site as a way of bolstering the trans-Atlantic alliance.

AFP, Ramallah

Mohammed Naji's son was killed by Israeli soldiers. Ron Kehrmann's daughter died at the hands of a Palestinian suicide bomber.

Beyond their grief, the two fathers share something else - both are skeptical next week's Mideast summit called by President Bush in Annapolis, Md., will do anything to end decades of conflict between their two peoples.

"I think it's all a big waste of time," Kehrmann said, saying the leaders on both sides are weak. "This is not the first conference to be held," Naji said. "None of these conferences produced peace."

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said Thursday a Nov. 17-dated draft of a joint document being worked on by Israeli and Palestinians negotiators showed wide gaps on issues that have derailed peace talks in the past - final borders, the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

Palestinian envoy Saeb Erekat, identified by Haaretz as one of the draft's authors, denied its authenticity, but he acknowledged "serious difficulties" in the negotiations. Israel wouldn't comment on the report, though officials did not dispute its authenticity.

Polls indicate most Israelis and Palestinians have little hope ahead of the Annapolis gathering, which is the first formal attempt to launch peace talks in seven years. More than 4,400 Palestinians and 1,100 Israelis have died in fighting since the last breakdown of talks.

Naji and Kehrmann lost their children in vastly different circumstances - and the deaths cannot be equated.

Naji's son, Abdel Moneim, was a militant who was targeted by an Israeli undercover unit in 2004. Kehrmann's daughter Tal was a 17-year-old girl killed four years ago while riding a bus on her way to shop for her high school graduation.

Naji has seven other sons in Israeli prisons, one of whom is expected to be among the roughly 450 Palestinian prisoners to be released in the coming days as a confidence-building measure ahead of the conference. Some 9,000 Palestinians are serving time in Israeli jails.

"I am happy he will be released, but I am sad that others are not," Naji said.

For Kehrmann, the prisoner release touches the rawest nerve of all. Although the decision is in keeping with long-standing Israeli policy of not freeing those convicted in deadly attacks, he sees the militants set for release as "potential killers."

Kehrmann said he doesn't trust the Palestinians' intentions and thinks it is a mistake to talk peace before the Palestinian leadership reins in militants and changes its mentality.

"We've been killing each other here for 60 years. Let's give it a year or two of not killing and not talking and then we'll see," he said. "I don't see any positive result that could come out" of the Annapolis meeting.

In a poll released this week, 57 percent of Palestinians said they don't believe the conference will lead to progress in peacemaking. The poll, conducted by the independent Near East Consulting firm, surveyed 1,200 people and had a margin of error of three percentage points.

AFP, Seoul

South Korea's first bird flu outbreak in eight months forced the slaughter of thousands of ducks in the country's south Saturday, although the deadly H5N1 virus was not involved, the government said.

The virus that caused the latest outbreak was a "low pathogenic" H7 strain that has not been known to spread to humans, said an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Quarantine workers slaughtered about 17,000 ducks at the farm in Gwangju, about 205 miles southwest of the capital, Seoul, the official said on condition of anonymity, citing office policy.

The outbreak, South Korea's first since March, was confirmed on Friday, the ministry official said.

Seven outbreaks of the lethal H5N1 virus hit poultry farms across South Korea between November 2006 and March this year, resulting in the slaughter of about 2.8 million birds.

The country declared itself free of bird flu in June after reporting no new outbreaks for three months.

The latest outbreak does not affect South Korea's bird flu-free status because it involves a "low pathogenic" virus, the ministry official said.

Since H5N1 reemerged in 2003, it has led to the death or slaughter of hundreds of millions of birds and has killed 206 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

AFP, Paghman

A suicide bomber blew himself up Saturday in a scenic Afghan town near Kabul, killing six people -- most of them children -- and wounding 12, officials said.

Four of the wounded were Italian engineers, they added.

Interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary earlier said six children were killed in the attack near a NATO-led unit in Paghman, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Kabul, but later he said some adults were among the dead.

"Most of them were children, maybe three or four, the rest of them were adults," he told AFP. Four Italians and eight Afghan civilians were hurt, he said, with initial reports indicating the Italians were working on a bridge under construction in the area.

"It is not clear yet whether they are civilian engineers or army soldiers," Bashary said.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which includes around 2,390 Italian soldiers, confirmed its forces were involved in the incident but would not provide the nationalities or details of what happened.

"We are aware of an incident. It was ISAF troops," an official in the media office said.

The blast was near the centre of the normally quiet town that sits at the foothills of the Paghman mountains and is a popular picnic spot for Afghans.

ISAF soldiers had blocked off the area, an AFP reporter said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. There have been more than 130 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, most of them blamed on Taliban militants waging an insurgency.

The deadliest was in early November and killed nearly 80 people, most of them school children. It is still not clear who was responsible for that blast.

AFP, Manila

Typhoon Mitag, packing winds of 109 mph, barreled toward the northern Philippines on Saturday, prompting thousands of panicked east coast residents to evacuate. A separate typhoon meanwhile weakened to a tropical storm and veered away from Vietnam.

Mitag, powering northwestward in the Philippine Sea, was forecast to slam into Aurora and Isabela provinces on the east coast of Luzon island late Sunday, said chief government forecaster Nathaniel Cruz. It had initially been forecast to hit southern Luzon.

Authorities urged tens of thousands of people living in areas at risk in Aurora and Isabela to evacuate immediately.

"Those whom I have asked to evacuate from the coasts and riverbanks, please do so now. Let us not wait for tomorrow because that may be too late," Aurora Gov. Bellaflor Angara Castillo told DZRH radio.

Up to 54,000 people would have to be evacuated from coastal and flood-prone areas in Isabela province, Gov. Grace Padaca told President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during a National Disaster Council meeting broadcast live on local television.

Cruz said Mitag had sustained winds of 109 mph with gusts of 131 mph, and forecasters across the region said it could become a super typhoon - with wind speeds of 138 mph - by the time it makes landfall Sunday night.

Philippine forecasters also warned of storm surges and a rise in the sea level in areas directly affected by the typhoon, and said heavy rains and strong winds should be expected across the country.

Mitag had initially been expected to make landfall in the southern tip of Luzon. More than 250,000 people had already fled or been evacuated from coastal communities and areas prone to floods and landslides in the provinces of Albay, Sorsogon, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte and Catanduanes, according to Glenn Rabonza, administrator of the Office of Civil Defense.

Typhoon Hagibis, which weakened to a tropical storm a day earlier, veered away from Vietnam on Saturday. Forecasters said the storm, which killed 13 people in the Philippines nearly a week ago, would linger in the South China Sea and remained a threat to shipping in the area.

Philippine coast guard spokesman Lt. Armand Balilo said Chinese sailors were still searching for 26 Filipino fishermen whose boat capsized in the South China Sea on Friday. Authorities earlier reported that 25 fishermen were missing.

Vietnamese soldiers, police and border guards began returning nearly 200,000 evacuees to their homes Saturday after Hagibis changed course. Vietnam has been battered by six major storms this season.

AFP, Sydney

The deputy leader of the opposition Labor Party said Saturday that her party has won Australia's election. "On the numbers we've seen tonight, Labor is going to form a government," Julia Gillard said on Australian Broadcasting Corp. television.

If Labor wins, leader Kevin Rudd would become Australia's first new prime minister in a dozen years, a win that would usher in major changes on the country's approach to global warming and the Iraq war. Earlier, Australian Prime Minister John Howard will be defeated decisively in Saturday's general elections, according to an exit poll taken for television channel Sky news. The poll in key marginal seats gave Kevin Rudd's centre-left Labor Party 53 percent of the vote against 47 percent for Howard's conservative Liberal-National coalition, Sky news said.

The results, if backed up in the final tally, would give the 50-year-old Rudd a commanding majority in parliament.

The exit poll also showed Howard would lose his own seat of Bennelong in Sydney, which would make him the first prime minister to suffer such a humiliation in 78 years.

Howard, 68, has held the seat since 1974 and has been prime minister since 1996.

The exit poll result was announced half-an-hour before the first polling booths closed on the east coast of Australia and two-and-a-half hours before voting was due to end on the west coast.

Actual counting of the ballots was only due to begin after voting closed at 6:00pm local time -- 0700 GMT on the east coast and 0900 GMT in the west.

The exit poll surveyed more than 2,700 voters in 31 key marginal seats.

Extrapolating from the results, Labor would wind up with a 54 percent to 46 percent victory, Sky said.

Such a result would be in line with most opinion polls taken this year, but last-minute polls ahead of voting had shown Howard's party narrowing the gap significantly.

Labor's deputy leader Julia Gillard said after the exit poll had been announced she was confident of strong support for Labor because voters had been turned off by Howard's tough labour law reforms.

AFP, Vienna

As the UN atomic watchdog Friday wrapped up debate on Iran's disputed atomic drive, the focus turned to upcoming talks between the EU and Iran to find a way out of the long-running stand-off.

At its regular year-end board meeting, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) urged Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activities, a potential path to nuclear weapons, and called upon Tehran to open up its atomic programme to UN inspections. Western states expressed growing impatience with Iran's perceived foot-dragging on a whole range of outstanding issues during the two-day meeting in Vienna.

The issues included the IAEA's lack of credible explanations for traces of highly-enriched uranium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons, that inspectors found at research sites in Iran.

Even after four years of investigations, the agency still cannot say once and for all that Iran's nuclear drive is entirely peaceful, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said.

Given the unencouraging results thus far, the so-called EU-3 of Britain, France and Germany decided to join ElBaradei in setting a deadline by the end of the year, said French ambassador, Francois-Xavier Deniau.

"A wait-and-see approach is not an option," Deniau told fellow governors.

"We call upon Irant to reply to all outstanding questions in the next few weeks," he said.

The next key stage in the Iranian nuclear dossier will be a meeting between Iran's atomic negotiator Saeed Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in London next week.

Solana has been trying to persuade Tehran to resume talks on suspending uranium enrichment in exchange for a package of political and economic incentives, but Tehran has refused to offer concessions.

A report by Solana, due by the end of the month, will along with the IAEA's findings form the basis for a UN Security Council decision whether to slap more sanctions on the Islamic republic, following two previous sets of sanctions in December 2006 and March 2007.

The Europeans seem willing to dangle another carrot in front of Tehran.

At their last meeting on October 23, Solana proposed to Jalili a "double freeze", meaning that the United Nations would freeze extra sanctions if Iran agreed to freeze expansion of its enrichment programme.

That would then be followed by a "double suspension" of both sanctions and enrichment. It was apparently the first time that such a "diplomatic sequence" has been officially suggested.

AFP, Beirut

Lebanon awoke a republic without a president Saturday amid mounting worries over a power vacuum that has intensified the nation's yearlong political turmoil. The capital was calm and shops opened for business as usual the morning after a tumultuous day that saw President Emile Lahoud depart without a successor after announcing he was handing over security powers to the army. Lahoud's final announcement saying the country is in a "state of emergency" was rejected by the rival, pro-Western Cabinet of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

The government rejection created fresh confusion in an already unsettled situation, which many Lebanese fear could explode into violence between supporters of Saniora's government and the pro-Syria opposition led by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

"Lahoud's term ends in a republic without a president," read the headline of Lebanon's leading An-Nahar newspaper.

Another daily, Al-Balad, printed an empty photo frame on its front page, symbolizing the political vacuum.

The departure of Lahoud, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime during his nine years in office, was a long-sought goal of the government installed by parliament's anti-Syria majority, which has been trying to put one of its own in the presidency.

Hezbollah and other opposition groups have blocked legislators from electing a new president by boycotting ballot sessions, leaving parliament without the required quorum.

The fight has put Lebanon into dangerous, unknown territory: Both sides are locked in bitter recriminations, accusing the other of breaking the constitution, and they are nowhere near a compromise on a candidate to become head of state.

The army command refused to comment on the developments. The military, under its widely respected chief, Gen. Michel Suleiman, has sought to remain neutral in the political chaos, and Lahoud's statement did not give it political powers.

Even before the president's vague announcement, the military was in place to guard against the two sides' supporters taking the conflict to the streets. On alert for days, hundreds of soldiers stood with tanks, armored personnel carriers and jeeps in the area around the downtown parliament building as well as on roads leading into Beirut.

Lahoud stepped down when his term expired at midnight.

AFP, London

Gordon Brown faced more discouraging polls Saturday after a bruising week that brought his honeymoon period to a grinding halt.

A string of setbacks have rocked his government and surveys suggest his initial burst of popularity since taking over from Tony Blair in June is well and truly over.

The ICM poll in The Guardian newspaper put support for the main opposition Conservatives on 37 percent, Brown's governing Labour Party on 31 percent and the Liberal Democrats on 21 percent.

A grim week for Brown has seen the revelation that the confidential data of 25 million people -- approaching half the population -- has been lost in the post. Finance minister Alistair Darling was accused of trying to cover up details of the fiasco.

Furthermore, five former heads of the armed forces have accused Brown of neglecting the military and the bail-out of the Northern Rock bank has raised questions about the government's competence and whether taxpayers will get all their money back.

Bird flu-related culls and a probable new foot and mouth leak seem the least of Brown's troubles.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper listed "the week's disasters" and concluded Brown had "neither the people nor the structures in place to deal with tough times, let alone crises.

"The British public does not forgive indecision in an era of rising anxiety," it said, calling for a cabinet reshuffle to restore confidence.

The Daily Mail commented: "The waste, incompetence and folly revealed this week have already made an impact. The political climate is changing."

Citing its poll, The Guardian said Labour's support had dropped to the "rock bottom" level hit in the final months of Blair's premiership.

ICM interviewed 1,005 adults by telephone on Wednesday and Thursday.

Meanwhile newspapers weighed into the debate on Brown's attitude towards the military, which is losing troops in Iraq and fierce fighting in Afghanistan.

A chorus of opposition politicians and top military men have said defence funding is not high enough to cope with fighting on two fronts.

The five former heads of the armed forces on Friday strongly criticised Brown's stance, with one suggesting he treated the military "with contempt".

Brown, in the Ugandan capital Kampala for the Commonwealth leaders' summit, has protested that defence spending had increased year-on-year since Labour took office in 1997.

"Gordon Brown fools no-one by protesting he is doing his best for our armed forces," as spending had plunged as a percentage of the overall budget, said The Sun.

"The vital post of defence secretary has been downgraded to a part-time role, carried out b