During a visit to Turkey this week, Paul Wolfowitz, America's deputy secretary of defence, found only limited backing for a strike on Iraq.

ECONOMIST: No bombs here, honest | The

James Miller, Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Policy at the Department of Defence, later clarified that the final phase of the missile defence programme had been dropped.

BBC: US to boost nuclear missile defence to counter N Korea

On the other side stand Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defence, and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.

ECONOMIST: Working out the world