WITH war on Iraq looming, President George Bush is taking spiritual guidance from an unlikely source.

It emerged this week that Bush, the world's most powerful man, logs on to the website of a charity run from a Blackpool house.

Mr Bush even sent an e-mail to the World Healing Crusade, situated opposite an off-licence on Lytham Road.

The charity's aim is to unite people of all religious faiths anywhere in the world using the power of prayer.

It was three weeks after the twin towers disaster and just before the war on the Taliban in Afghanistan that Mr Bush first contacted the website direct from the famous Oval Office in the White House.

He then e-mailed the Crusade asking the 50-year-old charity to send him their monthly newsletter.

The site, and the crusade's literature, makes claims about curing people from illness through the power of prayer.

The pocket-sized booklet is filled with with testimonies from people who believe their prayers have been answered because of the crusade.

Brother Andrew Butterfield of the World Healing Crusade said: "We have had the e-mail verified by the e-mail co-ordinator at the White House.

"We confirmed that George W. Bush had been on the internet himself when he clicked on our website."

Mr Butterfield, known as Brother Andrew, added: "I believe his interest in our work stems from the fact that we try and transcend the boundaries of religion.

"Our work is based on the healing of communities and relationships within communities and the break-down of dogma and human religion to its most simple form."

He said the Crusade boasts 60,000 members.