US nabs Iraqis, Bush defends war justification

10.30am

BAGHDAD - The United States military arrested two more Iraqi officials on its "most-wanted" list as President George W Bush sought to fend off criticism that he misled Americans into the Iraq war.

US forces said they were holding a former interior minister and a Baath Party leader, meaning 21 Iraqis now remain unaccounted for in the US "deck of cards" of the 55 wanted officials, including Saddam Hussein and his two sons.

Bush said the war was right despite the White House acknowledging it had been a mistake to accuse Saddam of trying to buy uranium from Niger for weapons of mass destruction as the administration was building support for invading Iraq.

"I am absolutely confident in the decision I made," said Bush, who ordered the invasion of Iraq over the objections of many foreign governments on the basis of intelligence that Saddam had chemical, biological or nuclear arms programmes.

No such arms have been found in the 10 weeks after the war. The Bush administration, like the government of its closest ally, Britain, has come under intensifying scrutiny for the way it showcased intelligence to justify America's first pre-emptive war.

Congressional committees are evaluating whether Bush's administration may have used faulty or exaggerated intelligence on Iraq's weapons to persuade the public of a need to eliminate the threat from Saddam.

In Washington, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the United States did not go to war with Iraq because of dramatic new evidence of banned weapons but because it viewed existing information on Iraqi arms programmes differently after the September 11 attacks on America.

"We acted because we saw the evidence in a dramatic new light -- through the prism of our experience on 9/11," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

At a joint news conference with South African President Thabo Mbeki on a tour of the continent, Bush said: "There's no doubt in my mind that when it's all said and done the facts will show the world the truth."

Asked for the first time about the uranium issue, Bush said, "There's going to be a lot of attempts to rewrite history."

The White House has acknowledged Bush relied on now discredited information when he said in a State of the Union speech in January the Iraqi leader tried to buy uranium from the West African state of Niger for arms of mass destruction.

Mahmoud Diyab al-Ahmed, Saddam's former interior minister, was captured by coalition forces on Tuesday, a Central Command statement said on Wednesday.

The military did not say where the forces seized Ahmed, who was No 29 and "seven of spades" in the deck distributed to American troops.

Also on Tuesday, Mizban Khidr Hadi surrendered to US forces in Baghdad, the statement said. Hadi, a senior member of the Baath Party and the Revolutionary Command Council, was No 23 on the list and the "nine of hearts" in the deck.

Washington has offered a reward of US$25 million ($43 million) for information leading to Saddam's capture or confirmation of his death, and US$15 million for similar information on his two sons.

US officials blame remnants of the Saddam government for increasingly bloody attacks in Iraq against occupying forces.

Iraqi political leader Ahmad Chalabi said Washington should not respond by sending more troops but instead swiftly arm and train a police force.

"Security in Iraq is not a function of the US sending more troops, it is a function of the creation of an Iraqi security force," Chalabi said after talks with Turkish officials in Ankara.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq