WASHINGTON, 12 July 2004 — The war in Iraq moved to the forefront of the US presidential campaign Saturday as Democratic candidate John Kerry, armed with a new damning Senate report, accused President George W. Bush of misleading America and abusing power by making allegations that proved to be wrong.

The charges, made in a wide ranging interview with The New York Times, came one day after the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report saying the CIA’s allegations about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and its ties to Al-Qaeda had been either overstated or not backed up by intelligence reporting.

Throwing the first punch in what appeared to be a broad attack on the administration’s foreign policy, the senator from Massachusetts also blasted the White House for not doing enough to combat the AIDS pandemic, promising to lift a ban on immigration to the United Stated by people afflicted by the disease.

But with the Senate report adding fuel to the Iraq debate, Kerry made clear he believed the responsibility for all the mishaps ultimately rested with the administration.

“He certainly misled America about nuclear involvement,” said the candidate, commenting on Bush’s statement about alleged attempts by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to reconstitute Iraq’s nuclear weapons program.

“And he misled America about the types of weapons that were there, and he misled America about how he would go about using the authority he was given,” Kerry continued.

Moreover, Bush had no plan for winning the peace, Kerry said. He insisted the administration had discarded professional military evaluations and turned its backs on the State Department’s efforts. “And they were wrong,” Kerry said. “And soldiers lost their lives because they were wrong. And America’s paying billions of dollars because they were wrong, and allies are not with us because they were wrong.”

Calls to the Bush campaign late Saturday for comment on Kerry’s charges were not answered. Building on his pledge to restore America’s standing in the world, Kerry, in a separate statement, welcomed the 15th International AIDS Conference that opened in Thailand yesterday and promised to work with US international partners to fight the epidemic.

But he also made a commitment that is likely to draw more fire from conservative groups insisting on tighter immigration requirements. “I will work with Congress to lift the immigration ban on HIV-positive people that has prohibited the United States from hosting this lifesaving meeting,” promised the senator. Some 40 million people are afflicted with HIV worldwide, according to the United Nations. The US tests all new immigrants for HIV, and a positive test is usually grounds for denying admission.

With only about 400,000 people in developing nations having access to treatment, Kerry said his strategy vis-a-vis the disease “starts with doubling US funding.” President Bush promised last year to commit $15 billion to the international campaign to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria over the next five years. But the Democratic candidate said the White House was falling short of delivering on its promise.

Meanwhile, a new opinion poll by Newsweek magazine showed the Democratic ticket had widened its lead over the Republicans going into the Nov. 2 presidential election.