US President George W. Bush warned against Iranian "stalling" in the heat of a nuclear showdown, and warned he could not protect America without tough interrogations of top terror suspects.

Mr Bush used a news conference in the White House Rose Garden, to set the stage for high-stakes talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly next week on imposing sanctions on Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

And he hit back forcefully at a Republican rebellion in Congress over his administration's rejigged plans on the trial and interrogation of top Al-Qaeda terror suspects.

He also expressed frustration with the UN over delays in the deployment of a UN force to stop what he has called genocide in the Sudanese region of Darfur.

Mr Bush warned Iran should not be able to stretch out the diplomatic clock and "stall" to repel the international effort to stop it enriching uranium.

He also ruled out a meeting with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the UN next week.

"My concern is that they'll stall, they'll try to wait us out," Bush said.

"It's part of my objective in New York to remind people that stalling shouldn't be allowed.

"In other words, we need to move the process, and they need to understand we're firm in our commitment and if they try to drag their feet or, you know, get us to look the other way, that we won't do that."

Bush will lead an effort to convince Russia and China, and even some of Washington's European allies who also appear to be wavering, to impose stiff sanctions on Iran, in line with UN demands uranium enrichment.

The US says Iran's program is designed to produce nuclear weapons, an accusation Tehran denies.

After a week in which he commemorated the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Bush rejected the argument, expressed by his former secretary of state Colin Powell that the world was "beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism."

"If there's any comparison between the compassion and decency of the American people and the terrorist tactics of extremists, it's flawed logic," Bush said.

"I simply can't accept that. It's unacceptable to think that there's any kind of comparison between the behaviour of the United States of America and the actions of Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective."

Mr Powell's comments came in a letter to Republican Senator John McCain, in which he expressed opposition to the administration's latest version of plans on the trial and interrogation of top Al-Qaeda terror suspects.

The President also warned he may not be able to ward off future terror strikes on the US mainland, if his legislation is not allowed to pass.

"Congress has got a decision to make," Bush said.

"Do you want the program to go forward or not? I strongly recommend that this program go forward in order for us to be able to protect America."

The White House Bill, which has triggered a rebellion in Bush's Republican party, calls for the retention of evidence gained under coercion and would prevent suspects from seeing some top secret evidence against them.

Critics say that the bill would allow the US Government to revise how it interprets the Geneva Conventions, and could pose risks for US troops serving in foreign conflicts.

The Senate Armed Services has its own version of the bill, which the White House said would tie the hands of US interrogators.

Bush also explained the deployment of more US troops to Iraq, and particularly Baghdad amid rising sectarian violence, despite earlier hopes the US garrison could soon start to draw down.

"It's gone from 135,000 to about 147,000 - I'll listen to generals.

"You know, maybe it's not the politically expedient thing to do, to increase troops coming into election. But you just can't - you can't make decisions based upon politics about how to win a war."

Turning to Darfur, Bush hit out at the United Nations over the sluggish approach to civilian carnage there.

"I'm frustrated with the United Nations in regards to Darfur," he said at a news conference in the White House Rose Garden.

The US and Britain pushed a resolution through the UN Security Council late last month demanding the deployment of some 20,000 soldiers and police to help end what they described as "genocide" in the western Darfur region.

But the measure is conditional on the Sudan Government accepting the deployment, something it has steadfastly refused to do despite intensive diplomatic lobbying by Washington.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed