United States President George W Bush missed a 'last chance' during his UN speech to sway an increasingly doubtful international community on the Iraq war, according to former assistant secretary of state Karl Inderfurth.

"I think, quite frankly, that President Bush blew it," said Inderfurth, who served as Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs under President Bill Clinton and is currently an adviser to presidential hopeful John Kerry.

"I'm very disappointed in watching the speech today that President Bush didn't rise to the occasion to make the case for truly internationalising this and asking other governments in a more humble way to help us in this very important effort," said Inderfurth during a conference call with reporters. "I think he missed an opportunity and I think he'll sharpen the differences between President Bush and Senator Kerry in the final several weeks of the campaign."

Inderfurth attempted to shed light on the positions that a Kerry administration would take on South Asia. For the most part, the differences were more stylistic than substantive, emphasising greater international cooperation while maintaining current policies.

He noted that both Pakistan and India were paying the price for the war in Iraq, in that it had diverted military funds from Afghanistan, creating a regional ripple effect.

"You name it, and the administration has been full of half measures at best, and I think there would be a bright line with what a Kerry-Edwards administration would do, and what the Bush Administration has done," he said.

Inderfurth said that Senator Kerry had not yet made any official pronouncements on India's bid for a Security Council seat, but suggested he would be supportive. Last week's announcement of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) between the US and India was, in Inderfurth's opinion, a necessary component of a larger drive to increase bilateral relations.

Inderfurth was cautious on Pakistan President Musharraf's recent indications that he would be not be stepping down from power at the end of the year, suggesting that a Kerry administration would maintain the status quo in relations between the U.S. and Pakistan.

"From my standpoint, we have to work very closely with Pakistan in the War on Terrorism but it should not be to the exclusion of other concerns that the United States has, and democracy is one of those," he said.

"I'd like to see what he actually decides to do and how he presents that," he said. "We know that Pakistan is in a dangerous position. We know that he is in a dangerous position."