President attracts diplomatic advice

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, still taking a crash course in diplomacy, is getting pointers from an unlikely trio: Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Democratic rival Al Gore and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

But as Bush begins a weeklong tour of Asia, there is little sign he is about to modify his blunt-spoken approach.

Putin and Gore both used carefully crafted language last week -- Putin in press comments in Moscow, and Gore in a speech in New York -- to caution Bush against U.S. unilateralism in going after Iraq or other hostile regimes.

While the United States has no basis for extending the war to Baghdad, "that does not mean that the international community does not have any problems concerning Iraq," the Russian president said.

Meanwhile, Gore stepped out of the political shadows to tell a New York foreign policy group that the administration should show more respect for its allies against terrorism. Sometimes, he said, it sends the message: "With others, if we must; by ourselves, if possible."

Still, the former vice president praised Bush for putting Iraq, Iran and North Korea on notice.

Thatcher took a different tack, saying in a newspaper essay that Iraq's Saddam Hussein must go. "How and when, not whether, to remove him are the only important questions," she wrote.