Congress pressures Iraq to disarm

WASHINGTON -- Congressional leaders said Sunday a resolution authorizing war against Iraq, expected to pass with little dissent, will strengthen the U.S. hand at the United Nations and increase pressure on Saddam Hussein to disarm.\nPresident Bush, after a weekend in Maine, returned to the White House and prepared to address the nation Monday night from Cincinnati. He was making the case against the Iraqi president on the one-year anniversary of the start of bombing in Afghanistan.\nSenate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who has counseled caution in unilateral moves against Saddam, said he will vote for the resolution but only after trying to make it more to his liking.\nA leading moderate Democrat suggested Bush was winning broad Democratic support for reasons of domestic politics as well as concerns about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Many Democrats opposed similar legislation that authorized the Persian Gulf War waged by Bush's father in 1991, and the party is still smarting from a perception as anti-war.\n"I think we need to work to improve our image on that score by taking a more aggressive posture with regard to Iraq, empowering the president," Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, a leader of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, told "Fox News Sunday."\nBush requested a strong resolution that would have given him a virtual free hand to deal with Iraq's chemical and biological weapons arsenals and its nuclear arms research program by removing Saddam.\nLast week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers went to the White House and endorsed a somewhat narrower version. It would give Bush broad authority to use force to enforce relevant U.N. resolutions, with or without the cooperation of the United Nations.\nDaschle suggested the United States would be more likely to win the approval he has requested from the U.N. Security Council if the case for moving against Saddam were to rest on a congressional resolution.\n"At the end of the day, I think the U.N. is going to be with us," Daschle told NBC's "Meet the Press."\nA House vote is expected Wednesday or Thursday, Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill, said. Daschle said Senate passage should come by next week. Congress is getting ready to break for midterm elections.