Democrats worry Bush setting up war with Iran

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some Democratic presidential candidates worried on Thursday the White House had begun a march to war by declaring Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorism supporter while a top Republican said "bombardment" of Iran should be an option.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney took a hard-line stance against Iran after the U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on the Revolutionary Guard in a bid to pressure Tehran to stop enriching uranium.

Washington also accuses Iran of supplying explosive devices to Iraqi militants that are being used to kill U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Romney, trying to win his party's presidential nomination for the November 2008 election, said in New Hampshire the military option must be on the table in the event sanctions do not work.

"I really can't lay out exactly how that would be done, but we have a number of options from blockade to bombardment of some kind, and that's something we very much have to keep on the table, and if you will, ready ourselves to be able to take because frankly it's unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons," Romney said.

Democrats, meanwhile, were afraid they were hearing a drumbeat for war against Iran, much as occurred in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003.

"I am deeply concerned that once again the president is opting for military action as a first resort," said Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd, a long-shot Democratic presidential candidate.

Dodd and others in the battle for the party's presidential nomination took a shot at the Democratic front-runner, New York Senator Hillary Clinton, for voting in favour of a Senate resolution that recommended the State Department label Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.