In a blow to US President George W Bush, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has expressed its strong disapproval of his decision to deploy more than 20,000 United States combat troops to Iraq.

As many as 17 Republicans also joined Democrats in the House of Representatives to oppose the Iraq policy, which includes an increase in troops there, in a non binding resolution. The vote on the resolution was 246-182.

"Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W Bush announced on January 10, 2007 to deploy more than 20,000 United States combat troops to Iraq. Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States armed forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq," the resolution said.

The Democrats had hoped for large scale Republican defections so as to send a strong message to the Bush administration.

The leadership in the Senate has indicated that it is bracing itself for a showdown on a vote on Saturday but Republicans in that Chamber have made it known that getting 60 votes to move forward in the Chamber is not going to be easy to come by.

The Grand Old Party is insisting that its alternative Resolution calling for no cuts in funding to the troops be also debated and voted.

"The stakes in Iraq are too high to recycle proposals that have little prospect for success," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"The passage of this legislation will signal a change in direction in Iraq that will end the fighting and bring our troops home," she added.

Bush has made no formal comments on the House Resolution but the White House has been making no bones of the fact as to where the President stood on the issue. In fact, Republicans have been making the point that the so-called Non Binding Resolution is only the precursor to a binding resolution calling for cut off in funds.

No one in the administration was under any illusion of the House Resolution falling by the wayside and the White House led by the President were already making strong appeals to lawmakers against tampering with funding requests of  $93 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I am going to make it very clear to the members of Congress, starting now, that they need to fund our troops," Bush said.