Former Politburo member and vice premier Qian Qichen Monday made the comment in the state-run English-language China Daily, writing that President George W Bush is trying to "rule the whole world''.

The striking criticism from a retired senior official of a government that Washington calls a key anti-terrorism ally is a departure from China's past refusal to comment on US presidential elections. Indeed, until yesterday most analysts assumed China would remain mum.

Most of Qian's comment is not new. The former vice premier has been one of China's strongest advocates of a multipolar world since the end of the Cold War. It is the timing that is important.

By authorising the comment, Beijing appears to be telling both political candidates that no matter who wins, the winner must take China's views on the international fight against terrorism into consideration and that China is not to be ignored.

Unlike in past years, China has merited virtually no mention by either presidential candidate. Certainly, Beijing realises that Washington's policy toward China will not change whoever wins out. Also, China and the US have maintained good diplomatic and political ties lately despite increasing disputes over bilateral trade and Washington's refusal to send home Chinese Muslims detained at the US military base in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay.

Qian is no mere retired party functionary. China's former foreign minister, he is known for breaking the country out of its diplomatic isolation after the bloody June 4, 1989, Tiananmen crackdown.

He retired as vice premier overseeing diplomatic, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan affairs in March last year. Once one of the major architects of China's foreign policy, Qian is believed to continue to maintain influence.

Qian wrote that the so-called Bush doctrine of maintaining the right to neutralise hostile interests before they gain the strength to strike the US, which came out in the wake of September 11, 2001 , is in essence raw force. ``It advocates the United States should rule over the whole world with overwhelming force, military force in particular.''

``The current US predicament in Iraq serves as another example that when a country's superiority psychology inflates beyond its real capability, a lot of trouble can be caused.''

Washington's anti-terror campaign, he wrote, has already gone beyond the scope of self-defence.

The invasion of Iraq ``has made the United States even more unpopular in the international community than its war in Vietnam,'' Qian wrote.

``But the troubles and disasters the United States has met do not stem from threats by others, but from its own cocksureness and arrogance.

``The 21st century is not the `American Century,'' Qian wrote, ``That does not mean that the United States does not want the dream. Rather it is incapable of realising the goal. In this century, all big powers should compete in a peaceful way, instead of by military means.''