The sobering appraisals emanating in public and private from Washington have sparked questions over whether the United States is losing a campaign declared by President George W. Bush after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Even if al-Qaeda figurehead Osama bin Laden himself is confined to the anarchic borderland between Afghanistan and Pakistan, experts say, his group has spawned any number of offshoots that are only loosely affiliated.

Bush Thursday took issue with media coverage of a classified new intelligence assessment that suggested al-Qaeda is as strong today as prior to 9/11.

"That's just simply not the case," he told a White House news conference, arguing that because of US offensive action, "al-Qaeda is weaker today than they would have been."

But Bush added: "They are still a threat. They are still dangerous. And that is why it is important that we succeed in Afghanistan and Iraq and anywhere else we find them."

Democrats, however, seized on the intelligence report reported by the Washington Post, which coincided with a bleak view of progress in Iraq contained in a new administration assessment.

US Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said the intelligence views "conclude al-Qaeda is growing stronger."

"But while Osama bin Laden is operating freely, we understand, on the Afghan-Pakistan border, the president wants to keep our troops in an open-ended war, a civil war in Iraq," he told reporters.

"It's really a travesty that Osama bin Laden is still at large almost six years after 9/11, but it's not surprising that al-Qaeda has been able to reorganise and rebuild because the administration has taken its eye off the ball when it comes to fighting terrorism."