US: In a historic session in the White House yesterday, President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney answered questions for 3¼ hours from the independent commission investigating the September 11th, 2001, attacks.
In a brief appearance afterwards in the Rose Garden, where he was pressed for a reason why he insisted he be accompanied by Mr Cheney, Mr Bush said: "If we had something to hide we wouldn't have met with them in the first place." He insisted on Mr Cheney testifying with him because it was important for the members "to see our body language as well, how we work together," he said.
Critics have charged that Mr Bush wanted the vice-president with him to co-ordinate their answers, and late-night TV comedy shows have ridiculed Mr Bush as incapable of responding without Mr Cheney telling him what to say.
There was considerable surprise among observers when the commission's Democratic vice-chairman Mr Lee Hamilton and Democrat Mr Bob Kerrey walked out early, Mr Hamilton to meet the Canadian Prime Minister and Mr Kerrey to attend "a previously scheduled meeting" with a senator on Capitol Hill.
Under ground rules agreed after months of haggling, the commission accepted White House demands that Mr Bush and Mr Cheney should not be put under oath, that no recording or transcript be made, and no photograph be issued.
The two leaders sat in armchairs by the fireplace in the Oval Office with the five Democratic and five Republican commissioners arrayed in a semi-circle on divans and chairs, and one extra person on each side to take notes.
Mr Bush originally insisted that he meet only the Republican chairman Mr Tom Kean and Mr Hamilton for one hour, but came under intense political pressure to co-operate more fully after his former counter-terrorism chief Mr Dick Clarke testified that fighting al-Qaeda was not a top priority for the Bush administration before the 9/11 attacks.
Commission members reportedly wanted to know what Mr Bush knew of the al-Qaeda threat, what he did about it, what action was taken on the day of the attacks, why Mr Bush did not return immediately to Washington and whether the focus on Iraq undermined the war against the perpetrators.
White House spokesman Mr Scott McClellan said Mr Bush was asked specifically about an August 6th, 2001, presidential daily briefing delivered to him by the CIA headed: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US".
The commission said the meeting was "forthcoming and cordial" and the information would be be of "great assistance" in completing its final report.
A Republican commissioner, Mr Jim Thompson, said the questions included everything "across the board" and that Mr Bush and Mr Cheney had answered them all.
"There was some laughter from time to time, the president is a bit of a tease," he commented. "There were no tense moments. I thought the president gave a five-star performance. I wish the American people could have seen it."
Criticism of Mr Bush for invading Iraq after 9/11 has risen sharply in recent weeks, according to a New York Times/CBS poll published yesterday. It showed that only 47 per cent of voters believed the Bush administration did the right thing in invading Iraq, compared to 58 per cent last month and 63 per cent in December.
The poll was published on a day when the US military death toll in Iraq for April reached 126, the highest in any month of the conflict. At least 736 US troops have died in Iraq since March 2003 and several thousand Iraqis.
Just 32 per cent of those polled, the lowest number yet, said Iraq was a threat that required war, 71 per cent say the administration's policies have worsened the US's image in the Arab world, and 61 per cent believed the White House did not try hard enough to reach a diplomatic solution.
Mr Bush's approval rating has fallen to 46 per cent and his rating on handling Iraq to 41 per cent, both the lowest of his presidency. Asked whom they would support if the November election were held today, Senator John Kerry got 46 per cent and Mr Bush 44 per cent.
Meanwhile, Mr Cheney's chief-of-staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was named as "quite possibly" the leaker of the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to a syndicated columnist last year in a book by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, published today.
A federal grand jury is probing the leak of the CIA officer's identity and whether it was designed to discredit Mr Wilson's criticism of the administration's Iraq policy.