GEORGE Bush and Tony Blair broadcast directly to the Iraqi people last night (Thursday) courtesy of a new TV station set up by US and British forces.

The channel, called Towards Freedom TV, was beamed onto the former Iraqi TV terrestrial station from a specially-equipped American aircraft circling the skies over the country.

The Commando Solo C-130 Hercules aircraft will transmit five hours of programming in Arabic every day, carrying everything from news bulletins, to public service announcements about water supplies and aid deliveries to arts features.

However, the new channel got off to an inauspicious start when power cuts in Baghdad ensured that no signal was received for the first broadcast of the Blair-Bush statements. The first broadcast went out successfully last night .

Britain will spend (pounds sterling)10,000 a day making its hour of programming, but the four other hours will be the responsibility of the US and will consist mainly of re-runs of press briefings in Qatar.

The first programme included a review of the London press and of a newly -- independent regional newspaper based in Basra. It also screened an interview with Laith Kubba, a representative of the Iraqi National Group, and reported on last week's meeting between Mr Blair and Iraqi exiles in Downing Street.

The content is agreed by US/UK military, some Iraqis in Iraq and a "sounding board" of Iraqi exiles in London.

Mr Blair and President Bush, who recorded their contributions during their summit at Hillsborough Castle, near Belfast, on Tuesday, both promised "a new and better future" for the Iraqi people.

Last weekend, said Downing Street, Iraqi TV's seven-and-a-half hours of programming consisted of 62 patriotic songs, 56 items on regime activities, and nine statements on behalf of Saddam.

The World Television company, a British firm based in London, will provide the programming, sent each evening by satellite to the US base of 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

From Fort Bragg the content is retransmitted by military satellite to Qatar, recorded onto video and loaded into a video playout machine on board Commando Solo.

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