Engaging in a war against Iraq "should be a last resort, not the first response," Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy declared here Friday.

Speaking at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, Kennedy warned that action against Baghdad could spark a broader war in the Middle East and stretch the US military – already engaged in the larger war on terror – too thin.

Kennedy said that, instead of war, the United Nations should pursue weapons inspections, noting that force could be considered later if the inspections proved unsuccessful.

The administration has not laid out to the American people the "cost in blood and treasure" of a war with Iraq, Kennedy said, and "it is inevitable that a war in Iraq without serious international support will weaken our effort to ensure that Al-Qaida terrorists can never, never, never threaten American lives again."

"Let us follow that course, and the world will be with us," Kennedy urged.

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, writing an op-ed piece in Friday's editions of The New York Times , charged that Bush had "decided to play politics with the safety and security of the American people." That mirrored criticism leveled at the president Wednesday by Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D.

Asked about this, Fleischer told reporters aboard Air Force One: "The president urges no one to politicize this debate. This is a very serious matter."AFP