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Is the US acting as a sole superpower by snubbing UN? Post your views

Washington: Fresh from a secret surprise trip to Baghdad, US President George W Bush has said that US will "stay the course in Iraq".

Briefing the White House press pool after return from his lightening tour to Iraq on Thursday (Nov 27, 2003), Bush said he had met four members of the Interim Governing Council in Iraq and assured them that the US would "stay the course in Baghdad and get the job done".

Bush said he and L Paul Bremer, the US administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, met with Jalal Talibani, the current president of the Council, Raja Habib Khuzaii, Ahmed Chalabi, and Mowaffak Rubaie.

He said he had also reminded them of the words he had just addressed to the Iraqi people during his public remarks before the troops, "that it's up to them to seize the moment, to have a Government that recognises all rights, the rights of the majority and the rights of the minority, to speak to the aspirations and hopes of the Iraqi people."

Bush said he made the visit to Iraq because he wanted US forces there to know that he and the country appreciate and support them. "These people are sacrificing for our freedom and our peace," he said. "We are at war with terror, and we are in the process of changing Iraq, which will make America more secure, and Americans appreciate that a lot."

PTI