Republicans should campaign on US economic strength and the war in Iraq as they gear up for the November election, President George W. Bush’s political adviser Karl Rove urged on Monday.

“We have the strongest economy of any major industrialized country in the world,” Rove told about 400 Republicans at a fund-raising dinner in New Hampshire.

Republicans in Congress have sought to limit debate on the Iraq war, which has contributed heavily to Bush’s slumping approval ratings and threatened to damage Republicans when voters decide the balance of power in Congress in November.

The US economy surged 5.3 percent in the first three months of 2006, its fastest pace in 2-1/2 years, but there have been signs it may be cooling amid concern over inflation.

Rove, one of Washington’s most powerful and polarizing figures, who is under investigation in the leak of a CIA covert operative’s name, chided Democrats for floating the idea of troop reductions in Iraq.

He specifically targeted Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and Pennsylvania Republican John Murtha.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Monday introduced a resolution they said would be the springboard for a debate on the war. Democrats decried it for dealing broadly with the war on terrorism instead of focusing on Iraq.

But with Bush buoyed by the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda’s chief in Iraq, and the filling of two key positions in Iraq’s new government, the Senate is also expected to tangle over the war this week and next as it considers a defense policy bill.

<B>Dan GORENSTEIN</B>