IRAQ: President Bush has said he will not hand over former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to the interim Iraqi government until adequate security is in place to ensure he does not escape trial.
Mr Bush would not commit to handing over Saddam by the June 30th transfer of power, as asserted by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, but he did not rule it out.
He said the United States would not allow "lax security" to jeopardize plans for Saddam to be tried by a special tribunal.
"He is a killer. He is a thug. He needs to be brought to trial," Mr Bush said at a Rose Garden news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"We want to make sure that he doesn't come back to power. And so, therefore, it's a legitimate question to ask of the interim government: 'How are you going to make sure he stays in jail?' And that's the question I'm asking. And when we get the right answer, which I'm confident we will - we'll work with them to do so - then we'll all be satisfied," Mr Bush said.
"I'm confident that when it is all said and done he will stay in jail. I just want to be assured," he added.
Mr Allawi said on Monday that Saddam and other prisoners would be given to the new Iraqi government within two weeks to prepare for trial.
But in a potential rift, Mr Bush and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, were noncommittal about the timing. "We're going to turn him over at the appropriate time ... We're talking to them about those issues, and about the process for turning them over," Mr McClellan said.
Mr Bush also stood by Vice President Mr Dick Cheney, who said on Monday that Saddam had "long-established ties" to al-Qaeda. That contention has long been challenged by some lawmakers and analysts.
Mr Bush cited the presence in Iraq of Islamist militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as "the best evidence of connection to al-Qaeda affiliates and al-Qaeda".
The US is under pressure to quickly bring charges against Saddam.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said prisoners of war and all other detainees in Iraq should be entitled to due legal process after the June 30th handover.
US troops captured Saddam in December near his home town of Tikrit and he has been in US custody since, held as a prisoner of war at an unknown location.
The US hopes former Saddam aides captured by US occupation troops will testify against him during the prosecution, which could take many months.
Meanwhile, amid other problems for the US-led coalition in Iraq, an explosion ripped through a crude oil pipeline linking northern Iraqi fields last night, an official in the North Oil company said. "It was probably sabotage," said the official.
A group headed by suspected al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing in Baghdad on Monday that killed 13 people, five of them foreign contractors.