Bush sees 'world becoming safer'

"I do believe the world is a safer place and becoming a safer place," he told Irish public television RTE in an interview recorded in Washington a day before he arrives in Ireland for a US-EU summit.

Asked about the mounting death toll in Iraq, Bush commented: "Nobody cares more about the deaths than I do".

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His comments came after insurgents unleashed a wave of apparently coordinated attacks across Iraq on Thursday, leaving at least 89 people dead just six days from the handover of power to an interim Iraqi government.

But Bush said: "I wouldn't be doing this, I wouldn't have made the decisions I did if I didn't think the world would be better."

"I argue strongly that the world is better off because of the decisions that I have made along with others," he said. "The free world has to make a choice, do we cower in the face of terror or do we lead in the face of terror."

Bush said his administration's policy was "to promote freedom and at the same protect our security."

"I know a free Iraq is going to be necessary and part of changing the world," he said.

Asked about widespread international opposition to his Iraq policy, Bush stated he was not after popularity. "History will judge," he said.

"Saddam Hussein used weapons of mass destruction against his own people, against the neighbourhood," he said. "We have found the capacity for him to make weapons, he was dangerous."

Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush said yesterday he hoped Nato would agree to provide training for the new Iraqi army to help stabilize that country.

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad "Allawi has asked for Nato to help train police and troops in order to help stabilize the country" and "I think we can get a training mission, hopefully," Bush told Turkish NTV television in an interview recorded in Washington a day ahead of his visit here to attend a Nato summit.

Bush said he did not expect to get more troops from Nato countries to participate in the international force already on the ground in Iraq.

"I'm not so sure we're going to get more troops out of any Nato countries. I think most of the Nato countries that have participated with troops are at their limit," he said.

"The only long term solution is for the Iraqi people to be in a position to secure their country," he added.