PM calls Iraq war 'wrong'

The Prime Minister renewed her criticism of the Iraq conflict yesterday, saying the Middle East and the world was worse off because of it.

Helen Clark told Otago University students in Dunedin that the Iraqi people should have dealt with deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, not the outside world.

"The war was wrong. We have said that consistently," she told the Herald.

"There was no justification for it. We made up our minds that that was not justified and that's why we wouldn't send people.

"In most things, we have a common mind with the US. But I have always felt it is wrong to see the differences as characterising the relationship."

She described the nations' relationship as an "extremely friendly and close one" but added that "there is not a country in the world where you don't have a difference of opinion".