US President George W. Bush asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to prepare for possible war with Iraq in as early as November 2001, less than two months after the United States launched war on Afghanistan, a news reportsaid Friday.

The Associated Press report, quoting a new book titled "Plan ofAttack," said Secretary of State Colin Powell believed Vice President Dick Cheney developed an "unhealthy fixation" on trying to find a connection between Iraq and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The book, written by Bob Woodward, a Washington Post journalistwho wrote an earlier book on Bush's anti-terrorism campaign and broke the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein, which covers the 16 months leading to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, will be available in bookstores next week, the report said.

Bush told Rumsfeld in November 2001, less than two months afterUS forces attacked Afghanistan, to prepare for possible war with Iraq, and kept some members of his closest circle in the dark, Woodward was quoted as saying.

Even the presidential national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was apparently not fully briefed, the report said.

In an interview with the author, the report said, Bush said he feared that if news had gotten out about the Iraq plan as America was fighting another conflict, that would cause "enormous international angst and domestic speculation."

Bush and his aides have denied they were preoccupied with Iraq at the cost of paying attention to the al-Qaida terrorist threat before the Sept. 11 attacks, the report said.

Woodward's account indicates some members of the Bush administration, particularly Cheney, were focused on Saddam from the outset of Bush's presidency and even after the terrorist attacks made the destruction of al-Qaida the top priority, the report said.

The scope and intensity of the war plan grew even as administration officials were saying publicly that they were pursuing a diplomatic solution, according to the report.

The White House confirmed Bush's November 2001 request on Friday.

At a news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday, Bush said he could not remember "exact dates that far back" when he was asked about Woodward's account about the conversation with Rumsfeld.

But White House spokesman Scott McClellan confirmed the conversation at a briefing later. "We began combat operations in Afghanistan in the earlier period of October, and by November and early December things were winding down," McClellan said.

"And the President did talk to Secretary Rumsfeld about Iraq,"he said.