At U.N., Bush Cites Headway in Iraq

In an address to the General Assembly, President Bush said it is "a time of tremendous opportunity for the U.N. and for all peaceful nations." (Larry Downing -- Reuters)

He decried the "terrible suffering and horrible crimes" in Sudan's Darfur region and called on Israel to "impose a settlement freeze," while urging new Palestinian leadership. Bush also proposed a new "democracy fund" within the United Nations that would help with elections and other democratic processes.

Later, asked by reporters about calls from GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Chuck Hagel (Neb.) for a more candid assessment about the Iraq situation, Bush replied that both men "want me elected as president. We agree that the world is better off with Saddam Hussein sitting in a prison cell. And that stands in stark contrast to the statement my opponent made yesterday, when he said that the world was better off with Saddam in power." Kerry has said he would not have waged war in Iraq if he had been president but has asserted that "the world is better off" without Hussein in power.

Bush also played down the significance of a CIA report forecasting more difficulty in Iraq. "The CIA laid out several scenarios and said life could be lousy, life could be okay, life could be better, and they were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like," he said.

The confidential August report to policymakers, according to an administration official who described it yesterday, outlined three scenarios over the next 18 months: a period of "tenuous stability," a time of "further fragmentation and extremism" or a period of "trending to civil war."

Bush's rosy assessment of Iraq came after other leaders and diplomats offered more somber accounts in recent days. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, in an interview Monday with al-Arabiya television, said: "The past week has witnessed an escalation in the security problems, undoubtedly."

Tuesday, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who recently riled the administration by calling the Iraq war "illegal," offered milder criticism than he had in the past. But he warned that "the rule of law is at risk around the world," and that "at times even the necessary fight against terrorism is allowed to encroach unnecessarily on civil liberties."

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who addressed the assembly before Bush, warned that "mankind is losing the fight for peace," adding: "The necessary fight against terrorism cannot be conceived strictly in military terms."

European leaders claimed some vindication of their view that Security Council approval was necessary for the Iraq war to succeed. "In hindsight, experience shows that actions taken without a mandate which has been clearly defined in a Security Council resolution are doomed to failure," President Joseph Deiss of Switzerland told the General Assembly.

But Bush received friendly words on Iraq from other quarters. Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili said his country cannot "afford to look the other way" and offered "to send fresh troops to Iraq to serve in the special protection force for the U.N. mission."

In a closed-door meeting with Annan, Bush underscored the importance of pressing for elections in Afghanistan and in Iraq during a discussion that also covered the Middle East conflict, Congo and Haiti. Annan has warned that the United Nations may not be able to endorse elections in Iraq if the violence continues at the current pace.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who attended the meeting, also told Annan that United Nations must move more aggressively to ensure the deployment of thousands of African Union monitors in Darfur.

Staff writer Walter Pincus contributed to this report.