Washington, Oct 17: The Senate defied President George W. Bush and voted to convert half of his 20.3 dollars billion Iraqi rebuilding plan into a loan, dealing the White House an embarrassing foreign policy setback. Despite an administration lobbying campaign that in recent days involved Bush himself, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top officials, the Republican-run Chamber voted 51-47 yesterday for a bipartisan proposal making 10 billion dollars of the aid a loan. The administration argued that loans would worsen Iraq's foreign debt, slow its recovery and hand a propaganda victory to America's enemies. But the vote underscored that with presidential and congressional elections 13 months away, many lawmakers were more worried about vast new spending for foreign aid at a time of record federal deficits at home.
``It's very hard for me to go home and explain that we have to give 20 billion dollars to a country sitting on one trillion dollars worth of oil,'' said one loan supporter, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. The vote came as the House and Senate edged toward approval of similar 87 billion dollars measures to finance American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the reconstruction of both countries. Bureau Report