US envoy in Iraq: Elections won't affect policy

The United States ambassador sought on Wednesday to reassure Iraqis that US policy would not dramatically alter after Democrats seized control of the US House of Representatives in midterm elections. In a videotape distributed by the embassy Wednesday morning, the Afghan-born envoy said US President George W. Bush "sees success (in Iraq) as imperative for American's national interests." But some Iraqis voiced hope that the Democrats would be able to change US foreign policy. "I hope this will change the Bush policy in the Islamic world and especially in Iraq," said 48-year-old engineer Suheil Jabar, a Shiite Muslim. "We hope American foreign policy will change and that living conditions in Iraq will improve."