In an interview with BBC television broadcast on Sunday, Bush said deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was "a dangerous man" who had to be dealt with.

However Bush, who arrives in London on Tuesday night for a state visit to Britain, refused to be drawn on the 45-minute claim, a key part of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's arguments for his country to help the United States in the war.

"I think our intelligence was sound and I know the British intelligence was sound. It's the same intelligence that caused the United Nations to pass resolution after resolution after resolution," Bush said.

The US president was asked by interviewer David Frost whether he believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction that could be used within 45 minutes.

"I believed he was a dangerous man," was the answer.

Pressed on the point, Bush, who was speaking at the White House on Wednesday, again refused to be drawn.

"And, well, I believed a lot of things, but I know he was a dangerous man, and I know that for the sake of security he needed to be dealt with," he said.

Bush added: "Nobody could say that Saddam Hussein wasn't a danger. I mean, not only was he a danger to the free world... and that's what the world said. The world said it consistently."

The argument that Iraq had chemical or biological weaponry ready for use within 45 minutes was a key part of a controversial British government dossier in September 2002 presenting the case for war.

This dossier has been at the centre of a judicial inquiry into the apparent suicide in July of government weapons expert David Kelly, who died after being identified as the source of a BBC report that Downing Street "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq's weapons.

WAR.WIRE