Thursday, December 15 2005 10:06 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: President George W Bush accepted responsibility yesterday (Dec 14, 2005) for going to war with faulty intelligence, but firmly defended a decision that has deeply divided the country. "We cannot and will not leave Iraq until victory is achieved," he said.

The President said that today's parliamentary elections in Iraq are a watershed moment that will inspire democracy across the Middle East. But with public opinion still running against his mission, Bush still was left defending his decision to go to war nearly three years ago.

"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," Bush told a foreign policy forum on the eve of elections to establish Iraq's first permanent, democratically elected Government.

"And I'm also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities. And we're doing just that."

"We are in Iraq today because our goal has always been more than the removal of brutal dictator," Bush said. "It is to leave a free and democratic Iraq in his place."

"My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision. Saddam was a threat and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power," the President told the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.