By Roger Hardy BBC Middle East analyst

As part of its campaign to show that Iraq has misled the world, the United States has issued a detailed report called "Apparatus of Lies".

It has been produced by a newly-created office within the White House - the Office of Global Communications - set up by President George W Bush as part of a more aggressive effort to influence world opinion.

It is a catalogue of allegations designed to bolster the US administration's case and demonise Saddam Hussein

The report - replete with photographs and satellite images and quotations from Iraqi officials - seeks to expose what it calls Iraq's "brutal record of deceit" from the Gulf crisis of 1990 until today.

It accuses the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, of putting civilians in harm's way, exploiting sick and malnourished children, staging funerals and hiding behind a phoney rhetoric of Islamic piety.

The report doesn't say anything new about Iraq's alleged development of weapons of mass destruction.

Rather, it is a catalogue of allegations designed to bolster the US administration's case and demonise Saddam Hussein.

As the Iraq crisis enters a crucial phase, the administration is stepping up its efforts to sway world opinion.

Consistent message

A series of speeches on Iraq by top officials - including Richard Armitage and Paul Wolfowitz - will pave the way for the president's State of the Union address on Tuesday next week.

The overall message is that America will go to war to disarm Iraq - with or without a new UN resolution - and will do so sooner rather than later.

That is certainly what Mr Bush wants Saddam Hussein to believe.

But despite its tough talk, the administration seems well aware that to fight a controversial war with such limited international support would be a risky undertaking.