Merrimack, N.H., Jan 30: President George W. Bush struck back at Democratic challengers who skewered him for months in New Hampshire and rejected their criticism of the Iraq war and his tax cuts.

Bush waded into the two biggest topics facing him in his re-election campaign in a visit to New Hampshire, where Democrats had denounced the Iraq war and his economic policies before the state's first-in-the-nation primary last Tuesday.
''I'm upbeat and I have reason to be,'' he said yesterday.
In remarks during a discussion on the US economy at fidelity investments, Bush said he looked forward to a campaign debate about whether the Iraq war was appropriate.
''I'm absolutely convinced it was the right thing to do,'' Bush said.
With many Americans complaining the country's strong economic growth is not producing a lot of new jobs, bush said his tax cuts were helping boost the economy and rejected arguments from his Democratic challengers that some or all of the tax cuts should be repealed.
''It's working. It's working. The economy is growing. People are finding work. There's an excitement in our economy,'' said Bush, holding a microphone and sitting on a stool in the kind of informal setting his aides prefer.
Bush, who emphasises his Texas home and plays down his East Coast roots, saw himself welcomed as a favorite son later at a fund-raising event in old Greenwich, Connecticut, here his grandparents lived. Bush was born in nearby New Haven.
The event raised 1.1 million dollars for his already powerful campaign war chest of more than 130 million dollars.
Bureau Report