On Tuesday, leading Senate Democrats said in a sharply worded letter that Al-Maliki's "failure to condemn Hezbollah's aggression and recognize Israel's right to defend itself raises serious questions about whether Iraq under your leadership can play a constructive role in resolving the current crisis and bringing stability to the Middle East."

The Republican National Committee rejected Dean's criticism of Al-Maliki, saying, "It is incredibly troubling that Howard Dean would seek to score cheap political points by attacking the democratically elected prime minister of Iraq."

On Capitol Hill, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said: "I dismiss Howard Dean. Really, he's a disappointment, even to Democrats. I don't care to deal with that."

Dean also used the Florida appearance to criticize President Bush, calling him "the most divisive president probably in our history" as he complained that Republican policies of deceit and finger-pointing are tearing the country apart.

"He's always talking about those people. It's always somebody else's fault. It's the gays' fault. It's the immigrants' fault. It's the liberals' fault. It's the Democrats' fault. It's Hollywood people," Dean said. "Americans are sick of that. Even if you win elections doing that, you drag down our country."

Dean spoke to about 240 business leaders in Palm Beach County at a gathering of the Democratic Professionals Forum. It is part of a nationwide grassroots campaign to get voters involved in politics on a local level ahead of the November elections.

Republicans welcomed Dean's appearance in Florida, criticizing him for the same divisiveness he accused Republicans of creating.

"Howard Dean's divisive rhetoric has done nothing more than drive the Democrat Party further to the extreme left of the political spectrum," said Carole Jean Jordan, head of the Republican Party of Florida.

Associated Press Writer Anne Plummer Flaherty in Washington contributed to this report.

The Swiss-based Phonak team said it was notified by the UCI on Wednesday that Landis' sample showed "an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone" when he was tested after stage 17 of the race last Thursday.

Landis made a remarkable comeback in that Alpine stage, racing far ahead of the field for a solo win that moved him from 11th to third in the overall standings. He regained the leader's yellow jersey two days later.

Landis rode the Tour with a degenerative hip condition that he has said will require surgery in the coming weeks or months.

Arlene Landis, his mother, said Thursday that she wouldn't blame her son if he was taking medication to treat the pain in his injured hip, but "if it's something worse than that, then he doesn't deserve to win."

"I didn't talk to him since that hit the fan, but I'm keeping things even keel until I know what the facts are," she said in a phone interview from her home in Farmersville, Pa. "I know that this is a temptation to every rider but I'm not going to jump to conclusions ... It disappoints me."

Phonak said Landis would ask for an analysis of his backup "B" sample "to prove either that this result is coming from a natural process or that this is resulting from a mistake."

"The team management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result," the Phonak statement said.

Landis has been suspended by his team pending the results. If the second sample confirms the initial finding, he will be fired from the team, Phonak said.

USA Cycling spokesman Andy Lee said that organization could not comment on Landis.

"Because it's an anti-doping matter, it's USA Cycling's policy not to comment on that subject out of respect for the process and Floyd's rights," Lee said. "Right now, we have to let the process proceed and we can't comment on it."

Landis wrapped up his Tour de France win on Sunday, keeping the title in U.S. hands for the eighth straight year. Armstrong, long dogged by doping whispers and allegations, won the previous seven. Armstrong never has tested positive for drugs and vehemently has denied doping.

Speculation that Landis had tested positive spread earlier Thursday after he failed to show up for a one-day race in Denmark on Thursday. A day earlier, he missed a scheduled event in the Netherlands.

On the eve of the Tour's start, nine riders - including pre-race favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso - were ousted, implicated in a Spanish doping investigation.

The names of Ullrich and Basso turned up on a list of 56 cyclists who allegedly had contact with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, who's at the center of the Spanish doping probe.

Last Friday, a Paris court had freed the Chinese teenagers from a detention centre and allowed them to return to their parents until July 29. They are both students at a technical school in Paris.

On Wednesday, campaigners had gathered at Roissy airport in Paris to protest against their deportation.

In June, Sarkozy bowed to pressure about the deportation of children of illegal immigrants and told authorities to reconsider some cases based on new criteria, such as whether a child has "strong ties" to France.

Some illegal immigrants with children in French schools are to be given residency rights.

New requirements include showing that one of their children was born in France or arrived before the age of 13, has been at school in France for two years, or has no link with the country of his or her parents.

Sarkozy on Monday also defended the recent high-profile deportations of 19-year-olds Animata Diallo from Mali and Moroccan Abdallah Boujraf.