WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush faced stiff opposition Thursday to his two ambitious second-term goals: spreading democracy in the Middle East and overhauling the politically sensitive Social Security retirement program.
A day after he used his annual State of the Union address to make those initiatives the centerpieces of his agenda for the next four years, Bush wasted no time in taking his case to some of the biggest skeptics.
The president left Washington early for a two-day, five-state trip to convince a divided US public and a polarized Congress to embrace his call for partially privatizing state-run Social Security.
And he sent US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a week-long trip to eight European nations, Israel and the West Bank to lay the groundwork for building democracy in Iraq and creating a Palestinian state.
"The goal of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace is within reach, and America will help them achieve that goal," the president said in his speech late Wednesday.
There was no immediate response from Israel, Washington's closest ally in the region, or from the Palestinians, who hope to open a new era in relations after largely getting the cold shoulder during Bush's first four years in office.
But even before Bush spoke to a joint session of the US Congress and a television audience of millions, opposition Democrats in the Senate declared themselves unanimously against his Social Security plan, dooming the plan unless he can peel off a few moderates while uniting his Republicans.
On the foreign front, Bush drew angry responses from Syria and Iran after he branded them terrorism backers, and he got a puzzled reply from a Saudi diplomat after he admonished the kingdom and Egypt to speed democratic reforms.
Tehran took particular umbrage at Bush's direct appeal to its citizens -- "To the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you" -- calling it misguided and ignorant of the Islamic republic's history.
"Mr Bush has forgotten that the great Iranian people, through the Islamic revolution 26 years ago, put an end to the dominant influence and presence of the United States in Iran," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said, quoted by the state news agency IRNA.
Asefi said the US president was "closing his eyes to the realities of the Islamic republic with its deep-rooted freedom and democracy."
In Damascus, Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah told AFP: "American officials need to be convinced that the pressure on Syria is futile and that a strengthening of dialogue is the only path."
Washington has slapped sanctions on Damascus, accusing it of sponsoring international terrorism and turning a blind eye to anti-American insurgents crossing the border into neighboring Iraq.
Dakhlallah, whose government has about 14,000 troops stationed in neighboring Lebanon, pointed to the 150,000 US troops in Iraq and accused Bush of using strong-arm tactics to try to spread democracy in the region.
"It is impossible to export freedom with tanks, planes and cannons," he said. "Freedom also means an end to occupation, the building of a world order based on democratic relations between nations."
Bush also drew a nonplussed reaction from a Saudi political leader after he urged Riyadh and Cairo -- two of Washington's staunchest allies in the Middle East -- to do more to embrace democratic reforms.
"The government of Saudi Arabia can demonstrate its leadership in the region by expanding the role of its people in determining their future. And the great and proud nation of Egypt, which showed the way toward peace in the Middle East, can now show the way toward democracy in the Middle East," said Bush.
"It is strange to utter such criticism as we head towards municipal elections in a week, and as the kingdom presses ahead with enhancing political participation," said Abdul Aziz al-Fayez, of the appointed consultative council.
"President Bush knows well that the process of reform needs time," Fayez, who sits on the council's committee of foreign affairs, told AFP.

02/03/2005 16:23 GMT - AFP