PORTLAND - Building on his earlier calls for a change of course in the Iraq war, U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., has thrown his weight behind a nonbinding resolution that rejects President Bush's proposal to increase U.S. troop presence in Iraq.

Smith's decision to sign on as a co-sponsor of the resolution offered by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., is just the latest sign that the once-unified GOP front on the war is splintering as polls show rising public disenchantment with the conflict.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Smith said he felt the war had “devolved far beyond what we authorized,” placing U.S. troops at risk amid a sectarian war rooted in political and religious conflicts.

“Who is the proper successor to Mohammed is not our fight,” Smith said.

Smith first signaled his displeasure with the course of the war in December, with an impassioned speech on the Senate floor questioning Bush's handling of the war, calling it “absurd” and saying it “may even be criminal.”

But since Bush's formal announcement earlier this month that he planned to send more troops into Iraq, Smith has refused to publicly endorse any of several pending resolutions criticizing the president's plans.

Smith characterized an earlier resolution proposed by Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del. and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., which has won the backing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as, “demeaning of the president.”

But Smith said he could support the Warner resolution, which says U.S. troops should focus on “maintaining the territorial integrity of Iraq, denying international terrorists a safe haven, conducting counterterrorism operations ... and training and equipping Iraqi forces to take full responsibility for their own security.”

American troops should be redeployed to Iraq's borders with Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria, Smith said, to “deny international terrorists a safe haven.”

The U.S. should also try to persuade other nations to join in imposing sanctions against Iran, Smith said, to curb that country's nuclear ambitions and support for terrorism in the Middle East.

As one of only a handful of Republicans to publicly question the president's plans, Smith's actions are being closed watched in Washington by the White House and on Capitol Hill. He said he wasn't certain how many other Republicans would join him, but added that “the dissatisfaction and disappointment is very real in the Republican conference.”

Smith, whose term is up in 2008, said he is planning on running for re-election. His surprise speech in December criticizing Bush prompted some Democrats in Oregon to accuse him of political pandering to voters in what has become an increasingly blue state.

“I don't think there's any time in which I could have addressed this that would have pleased them,” Smith said. “I spoke when I did, the way I did, because I felt deeply what I was saying and concluded it was the best time to make a difference in the debate. I'll let the politics speak for themselves.”

But Oregon Democratic Party Chairman Jim Edmunson scoffed at Smith's embrace of the nonbinding resolution, calling it a political gambit.

“Gordon Smith is running away from his own record,” Edmunson said. “We Democrats will remind voters over and over about how the real Gordon Smith voted when it really mattered. He supported the war before he opposed it.”

Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer, a potential Smith challenger in 2008, was more measured, saying, “The more that we can get people sending alternative signals, even if they are not particularly strong, the better. Bear in mind, these are the cheerleaders for what the president has done. For them to change position like this is very helpful.”

Blumenauer, who said he'd like to see Smith and others go beyond a nonbinding resolution, said he plans to unveil a plan to scale down the presence of American troops in Iraq this week.

Smith isn't willing to go so far as to vote to cut off funding for Bush's troop increase, saying instead, “The blunt instrument of the budget needs to be carefully wielded so as not to set us back on the war on terror.”

He would not specify what he thought would be the appropriate pullout date for U.S. troops if the increase doesn't work, but added that 2007 was “a year of decision.”

Reaction from military families to his change of heart on the war has so far been “mixed” Smith said Tuesday. So far, 79 members of the military with ties to Oregon have been killed in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Lynn Bradach, whose son, Marine Corporal Travis Bradach-Nall, died in 2003 while clearing land mines in Iraq, said she was frustrated that the resolutions under consideration are largely symbolic.

“I would like to see him (Smith) put himself out where he says, 'It is wrong, I am going to do everything I can to stop it, and bring our troops home,”' she said. “Everybody who is going for a nonbinding resolution upsets me - it is just a political show as far as I am concerned.”