CRAWFORD, Texas, Dec 29 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush on Wednesday said it was crucial for Iraq's election to go ahead on January 30 and that a fresh review of security in the country was underway.
"It's very important that these elections proceed," Bush told reporters near his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Bush said he had spoken on Tuesday with interim Iraqi President Ghazi Al-Yawar, who had expressed concern about security in the northern city of Mosul but also insisted that "most people in Iraq -- Sunni or Shia -- want to vote."
The US president added: "And so the task at hand is to provide as much security as possible for the election officials, as well as for the people inside cities like Mosul, to encourage them to express their will."
Bush said he had spoken with US civilian and military representatives in Iraq on Wednesday on ways to improve security.
He said a call by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to boycott the election underscored the need for the elections to proceed as planned.
He said bin Laden's statement, aired Monday on Al-Jazeera television, "made the stakes of this pretty clear to me.
"His vision of the world is where people don't participate in democracy. His vision of the world is where people kill innocent lives in order to affect their behavior and affect their way of living.
"His vision of the world is one in which there is no freedom of expression, freedom of religion and/or freedom of conscience.
"And that vision stands in stark contrast to the vision of, by far, the vast majority of Iraqis and leaders like Prime Minister (Iyad) Allawi and President Yawar, whose vision includes the freedom of expression (and) the freedom of the right to vote," Bush said.
He emphasized that "the stakes are clear" in the elections.
"It's the difference between the ability for individuals to express themselves and the willingness of an individual to try to impose his dark vision on the world, on the people of Iraq and elsewhere."
An Al-Qaeda-linked group renewed a threat Wednesday to attack polling stations during Iraq's election and said it was imposing a three-day "curfew" this week, in a statement posted on its website.
A statement attributed to the same group on November 18 had threatened to attack both candidates and voters in the landmark elections.
In response to a reporter's question, Bush also noted that the United States has "stepped up the production of the armored humvees significantly" to better protect US troops.
"The other issue is the rearmament of ... vehicles that are now in-theater, vehicles that require a different armament system" than the one with which they were originally outfitted. He said the Pentagon was working "expeditiously" with private contractors and the military to make this happen, noting that the change was slated for "midsummer 2005."
Thirty people were killed in the region when a house rigged with explosives blew up during a police raid on insurgents late Tuesday, in the latest attack on Iraqi security forces a month ahead of the elections.
The blast followed the killing of 43 Iraqis on Tuesday, many of them police and national guard troops, as insurgents flexed their muscle against Iraqi security forces who are expected to protect polling stations on election day.
The surge in attacks followed the broadcast Monday of the bin Laden tape, which anointed militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as his "emir" in Iraq and said that all those who took part in Iraq's elections would be "infidels," raising the stakes in the run-up to the vote.

12/29/2004 16:49 GMT - AFP