AUGUSTA (AP) – Democratic State Convention delegates adopted a resolution Saturday calling for impeachment proceedings against President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, but they opted not to include the measure in their party platform.

The strongly worded resolution says the president and vice president have “betrayed their oaths” in their prosecution of the war in Iraq, treatment and detainment of prisoners and use of illegal domestic surveillance.

It urges Congress to investigate the leaders’ actions, “carrying the legal process through to its conclusion in an act of impeachment.” It also calls on the Maine Legislature and the state’s congressional representatives to press for an investigation.

The resolution was passed following a daylong platform debate that was interrupted by political speeches and became bogged down repeatedly by parliamentary inquiries and challenges.

By the time it was adopted on the closing day of the two-day convention, delegates were streaming out if the Augusta Civic Center and campaign posters were being stripped from the walls.

The platform committee did not include the impeachment language in the draft because they wanted to make sure the issue was debated by delegates, party leaders said. Some party activists who spoke said that while they did not believe an impeachment plank should be part of the platform, they agreed with it in principle.

“There are grounds for impeachment, but it’s not practical,” delegate Gary Sinden of Eliot said after the vote. Sinden said he believes the idea of censuring the president, as proposed by convention keynoter Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., “is more practical.”

The platform as presented included about three dozen planks, which called for a national single-payer health insurance system and support for the state’s Dirigo universal health program. Other planks supported a woman’s right to reproductive choices and a resolution to the war in Iraq.

Delegates rejected a plank calling for a state Department of Peace, after opponents said they weren’t sure what it would do and questioned how the state would afford it.

Delegates strengthened a human rights plank and passed one that opposes Social Security offsets.