US: President George Bush made the extraordinary claim yesterday that the US decided to remove Saddam Hussein from power because he would not let UN weapons inspectors into Iraq, writes Conor O'Clery, New York
"The fundamental point is did Saddam Hussein have a weapons programme?" Mr Bush said to reporters after a meeting in the White House with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
"The answer is absolutely. We gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in and he wouldn't let them in. And therefore after reasonable requests we decided to remove him from power - along with other nations - so as to make sure he was not a threat to the US and our friends and allies in the region." A UN spokesman said last night: "The inspectors did four months of work in Iraq before March 18th and were withdrawn not because of anything Iraq did but in anticipation of an attack."
Mr Bush was responding to a question about the inclusion in his January 28th State of the Union Speech - since admitted to have been a "mistake" - of a claim not substantiated by US intelligence that Iraq was trying to buy uranium for nuclear weapons from Africa.
"The speech that I gave was cleared by the CIA," said Mr Bush. "Subsequent to the speech the CIA had some doubts. But when I read the speech it was cleared . . . I'm not interested in talking about intelligence unless it's cleared by the CIA."