Bush hails Iraq and Afghanistan as models

1.00pm - By PAUL TAYLOR

NEW YORK - US President George W Bush declared Iraq and Afghanistan to be on the road to democracy and stability on Tuesday and said they would become models for reshaping the entire Middle East.

In an address to the annual session of the UN General Assembly six weeks before the US presidential election, Bush vigorously defended his decisions to invade the two countries and urged the world to do more to support their reconstruction.

"Not long ago, outlaw regimes in Baghdad and Kabul threatened the peace and sponsored terrorists. ... Today the Iraqi and Afghan people are on the path to democracy and freedom," Bush said.

"These two nations will be a model for the broader Middle East," he said, playing down turmoil in both countries as they prepare for elections.

With US-backed interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the hall, Bush vowed the United States would not be blown off course by daily violence or the beheading of hostages.

Both US allies survived assassination bids this month. Karzai's authority does not reach far beyond his Nato-policed capital, Kabul, while Allawi's embryonic security forces and their US-led backers have lost control of several cities and face mounting bloodshed by insurgents.

Vowing elections would go ahead in January despite the mayhem, Allawi told reporters he had pressed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to contribute troops to the US-led multinational force.

Eighteen days before Afghanistan's first presidential election, Karzai stressed in his UN speech the challenges his country still faced -- militancy, narcotics trafficking, extreme poverty and deprivation -- and said continued international support would be crucial to progress.

Dozens of assembled leaders and ministers, aware Bush is ahead in most pre-election polls, listened to his fourth address to the world body in silence and gave him polite but not enthusiastic applause at the end.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan earned a more sustained ovation for a speech that admonished all nations, including the most powerful one, to respect the rule of international law.

In a BBC interview amid a US campaign in which Iraq has become a central battleground, Annan last week renewed his charge the US-led war to oust Saddam Hussein was "illegal" because it lacked UN Security Council authority.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters Annan was "technically correct" to call the invasion unlawful, but political factors had to be taken into account. The leaders of Switzerland and Spain criticized US conduct.

"In hindsight, experience shows that actions taken without a mandate which has been clearly defined in a Security Council resolution are doomed to failure," Swiss President Joseph Deiss said in a speech to the assembly.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who pulled his country's troops out of Iraq after winning election in March, told a news conference: "Peace is a task that demands more determination, more heroism than war. For that reason, my government decided not to have a military presence in Iraq."

Reaffirming justifications challenged by Democratic presidential rival John Kerry, Bush tied the Iraq invasion to fighting terrorism and preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, even though none have been found in Iraq.

While Kerry and many European governments contend the war actually fuelled terrorism, Bush said the US-led coalition was confronting "terrorists and foreign fighters" in Iraq "so peaceful nations around the world will never have to face them within our own borders."

Bush, who proposed establishing a UN Democracy Fund, won support for his drive for greater democracy in the Middle East from the unelected ruler of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, host to both US Central Command headquarters and the pan-Arab television station al-Jazeera.

"Political reform and the people's participation in decision-making are no longer an option but a necessity," he told the assembly. "It is no exaggeration to say that they have now become an imperative."

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who shook hands and exchanged greetings with Allawi at the UN meeting, told reporters everyone should rally behind US efforts in Iraq.

"We should be united in order to win this battle ... to bring democracy to Iraq. If we succeed in doing that, then there will be some other countries in the Middle East that will ask for democracy," he said.

- REUTERS

Full text:
President Bush's speech to the UN General Assembly

Herald Feature: Iraq