WASHINGTON, April 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. leading newspaper, International Herald Tribune, said Wednesday that "years of frustrating diplomacy have not managed to deflect Iran's nuclear ambitions, but American airstrikes are not likely to either."

    A U.S. bombing campaign, which was allegedly under consideration, "would surely rally the Iranian people behind the radical Islamic government and the nuclear program."

    "The best hope for avoiding a nuclear-armed Iran lies in encouraging political evolution there over the next decade."

    "It is important to make clear to the Iranian people that they have no need for nuclear weapons and would actually better off without them," the newspaper said editorially.

    The Washington Post reported early this week that two main options are being seriously considered - a limited strike against Iran nuclear-related sites or a broader campaign against a wider range of military and political targets in the Islamic republic.

    The report about a possible military attack against Iran prompted a quick response by U.S. President George W. Bush and the White House.

    Dismissing the report as "wild speculation," Bush said on Monday that diplomacy was his focus for keeping Iran from developing nuclear arms.

    Referring to Bush remarks that all options are on the table for stopping Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons, the Tribune said if the Bush administration "intends to proceed with a bombing campaign when and if diplomacy fails, Congress and the public needto force the kind of serious national debate that never really took place before the American invasion of Iraq."

    The United States, joined by other countries, launched in March 2003 a military invasion of Iraq and toppled then president Saddam Hussein and his regime. Enditem