Thursday, January 13 2005 11:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: US President George W Bush has said that the war in Iraq, which ousted Saddam Hussain and cost the lives of some 1,300 American military personnel and billions of Dollars, was "absolutely" worth it even though no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) have been found.

Bush's comments came as the White House said that the US had quietly halted its search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, the key reason for going to war.

"Well, like you, I felt like we'd find weapons of mass destruction," Bush said, according to excerpts released from an ABC television interview.

"Or like many, many here in the United States, many around the world, the UN thought he had weapons of mass destruction, and so, therefore, one, we need to find out what went wrong in the intelligence gathering. Saddam was dangerous. And ... the world was safer without him in power," Bush made his comments on the ABC News 20/20 programme.

Asked whether it was worth it to invade Iraq even without WMD found, Bush replied, "Oh, absolutely."

Meanwhile, the White House confirmed that US has ended the physical search for WMDs in Iraq. "The Iraqi Survey Group (ISG) has 'essentially ended' its physical search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters yesterday (Jan 12, 2005).

"The team that was out there (Iraq) is wrapping up their report. They're working on an addendum to the report they put out last October. The addendum won't change substantially the conclusions they reached in the interim report," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.