NEW YORK, Jan 21: Demoractic candidates getting ready to oust President George Bush from the White House on Tuesday severely criticized his State of the Union address as being full of empty promises for the American people and for making Americans unsafe.

They also accused Mr Bush of pursuing reckless policies abroad that have alienated allies and left the United States to bear most of the costs and casualties of the Iraq war.

"The State of the Union may look rosy from the White House balcony or the suites of George Bush's wealthiest donors. But hard-working Americans will see through this president's effort to wrap his radical agenda with a compassionate ribbon," said former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who finished third in the Iowa caucuses, but hopes to bounce back in next week's New Hampshire primary.

Mr Bush in his speech defended the war in Iraq, outlined the ongoing threat of global terrorism, promised to promote economic growth and job creation and called upon Congress to make tax cuts permanen.

The Democrats charged that Mr Bush was ignoring the needs of average Americans while pushing policies that benefit the wealthy. "I think there's just two different worlds here, the world the president talks about and the world Americans are living in," Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who won Monday's Iowa caucuses, said on NBC television.

"While CEO pay is up and Wall Street profits are up, the average American only earned three cents on the dollar more. Workers are hurting all across America," he said.

North Carolina Democratic Sen. John Edwards, whose campaign got a boost in Iowa where he finished second, sounded a similar note when he delivered a speech called "The State of the Two Americas."

"When the president says, 'The state of our union is strong,' you need to ask 'which union Mr. President?"' Edwards said. "Because the state of George Bush's union - the America of the Washington lobbyists, special interests and his CEO friends - is doing just fine. They get what they want, whenever they want."

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, another demorcatic contender said: "The sad fact is that today, two years after he coined the term, we've got a new axis of evil ... of fiscal policies that threaten our future, foreign policies that threaten our security and domestic policies that put families dead last."

Clark said Bush will "spend billions on the war in Iraq, missile defense, and sending a man to Mars. But he's going to spend a grand total of $120 million for job training. That's just $15 for each unemployed American. That's not much more than the cost of bus fare to the training center, lunch, and coffee."

Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the most conservative Democratic contender, said Mr Bush "seems to be in a state of denial about the state of our economy, our health care system and our relations with the world."

Democrats in Congress also ripped Bush for pursuing "a go-it-alone foreign policy" and mishandling the economy. "The president led us into the Iraq war on the basis of unproven assertions without evidence; he embraced a radical doctrine of pre-emptive war unprecedented in our history, and he failed to build a true international coalition," said House of Representatives Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California. "America must be a light to the world, not just a missile," she said.

AGENCIES ADD: The Democrats accused President Bush of leading the Unites States into isolation in the world and creating a new "Axis of Evil" with his policies.