US President George W. Bush took the blame on Wednesday for going to war in Iraq over faulty intelligence but said he was right to topple Saddam Hussein and urged Americans to be patient as Iraqis vote.

"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq, and I am also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities and we're doing just that," he said.

But he said: "My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision" because he was deemed a threat and that regardless, "We are in Iraq today because our goal has always been more than the removal of a brutal dictator."

Bush's new admission was significant in that he rarely admits mistakes, although he has acknowledged failures in US intelligence on Iraq before.

In an interview with Fox News aired on Wednesday night, Bush gave strong endorsements to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice-President Dick Cheney, both frequently accused by critics of pushing the war on false pretences.

Comments draw fire at home

Bush's comments quickly drew fire from 40 Senate Democrats and one independent who sent him a letter demanding he provide a plan that identifies "the remaining political, economic, and military benchmarks that must be met and a reasonable schedule to achieve them."

"The president's speech today failed to provide the American people with any insight into his strategy for completing the mission," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat.

The liberal MoveOn.org group said it delivered petitions bearing 400,000 signatures to 248 district congressional offices, urging support for an exit strategy plan with a timeline to bring US troops home from Iraq.

Italy's defence minister said yesterday the country will pull 300 more troops out of Iraq in January, continuing a gradual withdrawal started earlier this year.

Antonio Martino said the reduction would bring Italian troop levels in Iraq to 2,600, in comments confirmed by his ministry.

House supports anti-torture bill

The House of Representatives on Wednesday gave overwhelming support to a measure requiring the humane treatment of prisoners in US custody, piling pressure on President Bush to agree to put into law a ban on the torture of detainees.

The House voted 308-122 to instruct negotiators working on a final version of a defence-spending bill to accept an amendment pushed by Arizona Republican Senator John McCain that would bar the cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of military prisoners.

Although the House motion was not binding, it should boost the clout of McCain, who was locked in talks with the White House on a final version of his amendment.

"Torture scars not only its subject, it scars those who perpetrate it and those who are witnesses to it," said Republican John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, who pushed for the House vote.

Source: China Daily