Senior Senate Democrats came down like a tonne of bricks on Secretary of State designate Condoleezza Rice accusing her of deliberately misleading America into an unnecessary and tragic war in Iraq.

Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, two top ranking Democratic senators, and five others, all spoke out against Rice even though her confirmation as secretary of state by the Senate and Congress is considered a mere formality.

Since the Democrats are a minority in both the Senate and Congress, their comments are unlikely to amount to any adverse consequence but they do signal a new direction by party leaders. Apart from the 55 Republicans in the Senate, many Democrats too are expected to vote in favour of her confirmation likely on Wednesday.

Apart from Byrd and Kennedy, others who spoke out included Carl Levin of Michigan, Mark Dayton of Minnesota, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Barbara Boxer of California.

Boxer's questioning or Rice during the confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week was among the most direct and critical.

Byrd questioned Rice's credibility and effectiveness both in the context of the Iraq war as well as her role as the national security advisor in the run up to the Sep 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington.

Byrd said: "Accountability is not a negotiable commodity."

Kennedy couched his disapproval saying while he found "inspiring" her rise from a modest background in America's south that oppressed the blacks, but Rice must accept blame for Iraq being "a catastrophic failure, a continuing quagmire". 

He charged that the war was started on false premises, and Rice had misled lawmakers and the American people about whether Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Recently the Bush administration announced without much fanfare that it had officially given up its search for weapons of mass destruction.

Kennedy said Iraq had become "a breeding ground for terrorism", making the US less secure.

Former presidential candidate and Democratic Senator John Kerry too has been vocal against Rice's nomination. He was one of the two who voted against her, the other being Senator Boxer.

Underscoring a division within the Democratic Party, Senator Joseph Lieberman, a former vice presidential and presidential candidate, however, announced his support for Rice and urged others to "resoundingly endorse" her.