US President George W. Bush denied on Friday that the administration manipulated intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

In a forceful defense of his Iraq war policy, Bush said antiwar critics claimed the administration had manipulated the intelligence on Iraq, but they were aware that a Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs.

"When I made the decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Congress approved it with strong bipartisan support," he said in a speech in Pennsylvania, on the occasion of the Veterans Day.

More than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power, he noted.

"Intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with the administration's assessment of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, " he said.

Bush said that he accepted the responsibilities and the criticisms and the consequences "that come with such a solemn decision (of going to war)," but "it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began."

"The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges," he said.

The "baseless" attacks would send the wrong signal to US troops and to the enemy, he said.

Bush made the speech at a time when the American public's doubts about the Iraq war kept growing and his approval ratings decreased. A number of polls released recently showed his approval ratings at round 40 percent, the lowest of his presidency.

Democrats immediately rebuffed Bush's criticism.

"Its deeply regrettable that the president is using Veterans Day as a campaign-like attempt to rebuild his own credibility by tearing down those who seek the truth about the clear manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war," Senator Edward Kennedy said in a statement.

Source: Xinhua