Bush defends Iraq war and chides Europe

8.00am

LONDON - US President George W Bush chided his critics in Europe on Wednesday and said the United Nations risked extinction unless it showed the sort of Anglo-American backbone that toppled Saddam Hussein.

During a high-profile state visit to Britain rich in pageantry and protest, Bush used a keynote speech to justify his divisive Iraq policy and his staunch alliance with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In an apparent nod to Blair -- who has long urged him to push for Middle East peace alongside war in Iraq -- Bush warned Israel not to undermine peace efforts with a security barrier it is building in Palestinian territory, or settlement expansion.

He also told powers in continental Europe they had a responsibility to help ensure global security, despite their opposition to the US-British war and the occupation of Iraq.

"Because European countries now resolve differences through negotiation and consensus, there's sometimes an assumption that the entire world functions in the same way," Bush said.

"Beyond Europe's borders, in a world where oppression and violence are very real, liberation is still a moral goal and freedom and security still need defenders."

Hundreds of protesters turned out in a foretaste of a planned march on Thursday, as police mounted a security operation unprecedented in Britain that aimed to protect Bush from terror attacks as well as maintain order on the streets.

Yet even before Queen Elizabeth had formally welcomed the president, a probe was under way to find out how a reporter had duped security and secured a servant's job in the Buckingham Palace rooms that Bush and his wife are calling home.

Demonstrators dyed fountains red in Trafalgar Square, near the palace and Blair's Downing Street residence, to symbolise the blood spilt in Iraq.

But Bush shrugged off public opposition to the conflict by Britons, most of whom opposed the war.

"In some cases the measured use of force is all that protects us from a chaotic world ruled by force," he said.

The president also said he believed in the United Nations, which he bypassed to launch war, but that its viability depended on a willingness to keep its word and act.

"America and Great Britain have done, and will do, all in their power to prevent the United Nations from solemnly choosing its own irrelevance and inviting the fate of the League of Nations," he said.

"It is not enough to meet the dangers of the world with resolutions; we must meet those dangers with resolve."

He singled out France, which led international opposition to the Iraq war, for criticism. He said Paris had ridiculed former president Woodrow Wilson's post-World War One vision of global security, which had helped inspire the failed League of Nations.

"Sounds familiar," he mocked.

Bush also urged European countries to withdraw support from "any Palestinian ruler who fails his people and betrays his cause" -- a veiled reference to President Yasser Arafat -- and to reject anti-Semitism as a "poison" to peace efforts.

Across town, a colourful cavalcade was led by protesters dressed as Bush and the queen, riding in a horse-drawn open carriage of the sort Bush cannot use due to security concerns. Next came a six-metre inflatable intercontinental missile and a pink "peace and love tank".

But the main security problem came inside the palace gates.

The Daily Mirror newspaper said its undercover reporter Ryan Parry had secured a job as a footman using bogus references, and that he had only left the palace after Bush arrived there on Tuesday evening.

"Had I been a terrorist intent on assassinating the queen or Bush, I could have done so with absolute ease," Parry wrote.

The palace launched an urgent investigation, but White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan told reporters: "We have every confidence in the British security."

Police were out in force in the evening to ensure activists did not breach a cordon in front of the palace, where Bush and his wife were to spend their second of three nights.

Airline worker Dawn Totten, 50, said she had flown from her home in the United States to join the scattered protests.

"I came all the way from San Francisco because demonstrations go unrecognised and unreported there," she said.

Her message for Bush? "I'd like to tell him to stay here."

- REUTERS

Full text: President Bush's speech at Whitehall Palace

Herald Feature: Iraq