U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld came under attack at a Senate hearing Thursday, weathering calls for his resignation as he insisted the military shouldn't set a deadline for withdrawing American troops from Iraq.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a Democrat, condemned as "gross errors and mistakes" in the U.S. military campaign in Iraq. He demanded Rumsfeld step down.

"In baseball, it's three strikes, you're out. What is it for the Secretary of Defense?" Kennedy asked at the fractious Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

"Isn't it time for you to resign?" he asked.

"I've offered my resignation to the president twice," Rumsfeld fired back, adding that President George W. Bush didn't accept his offer. "That's his call."

Rumsfeld and other military leaders were appearing before the committee in Washington to field questions on the future of the U.S. campaign in Iraq.

The Defence Secretary rejected calls from some senators that the military set a timetable to pull troops out of Iraq, calling it a "mistake" that would "throw a lifeline to terrorists."

"Timing in war is never predictable. There are never guarantees," he said. "Those who say we are losing this war are wrong. We are not."

 

However, Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, testified that the Iraqi insurgency isn't weakening.

"I believe there are more foreign fighters coming into Iraq than there were six months ago. In terms of the strength of the insurgency, I would say it is the same as it was."

 

Democrats and even some Republicans openly criticized the U.S. campaign in Iraq, where more than 1,700 Americans have died since U.S.-led troops invaded in March of 2003.

The Bush administration has repeatedly said that the militants in Iraq are being beaten. Last month, Vice President Dick Cheney said in an interview that the insurgency was in its "last throes."

However, militant attacks have continued to take a heavy toll, particularly on Iraqi security troops. Hundreds of civilians have been killed since a Shia-led government formed two months ago.

In the United States, public skepticism is climbing as the costs of the occupation spiral.

"Public support in my state is turning," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina. "People are beginning to question.

"And I don't think it's a blip on the radar screen. We have a chronic problem on our hands."