In his first solo news conference since March, Bush also defended his management of the slumbering US economy and solicited foreign help in fending off nuclear crises in North Korea and Iran.

Bush appeared in the sun-roasted White House Rose Garden days before heading off for a month at his Texas ranch, facing slipping opinion poll ratings and the smouldering controversy over Iraq's alleged weapons programs.

"I take personal responsibility for everything I say, of course. Absolutely," Bush said, when asked, after weeks of evading blame, whether he accepted responsibility for a since discredited claim that Iraq sought uranium for nuclear weapons in Africa.

But Bush, who has been criticised for holding too few formal news conferences, then quickly changed the subject, addressing the question of whether it was right to oust Saddam Hussein.

"I analysed a thorough body of intelligence -- good, solid, sound intelligence -- that led me to come to the conclusion that it was necessary to remove Saddam Hussein from power," Bush said.

He also warned that the United States remained a key target for al-Qaeda, but said he was confident authorities could ward off a feared new wave of attacks.

"There are still al-Qaeda remants that have designs on America," Bush said.

"But I'm confident we will thwart the attempts."

The Department of Homeland Security warned Tuesday that al-Qaeda may be planning more hijackings of airliners, patented on the September 11 attacks.

Bush claimed credit for lifting a "blanket of fear" in Iraq, but admitted: "I don't know how close we are to getting Saddam Hussein. Closer than we were yesterday, I guess. All I know is, we're on the hunt."

Bush also lauded the killings by US soldiers of two of Iraq's "most despicable henchmen," Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay.

Despite the failure to find conclusive evidence of Iraq's banned weapons programs to justify the war, Bush said he was confident "the truth" would come out, after US forces sifted through piles of documents discovered in Iraq.

Bush also pressed home his drive for peace in the Middle East, days after meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas.

The goal of a Palestinian state by 2005 enshrined in the roadmap for Middle East peace was still "realistic" he said, and claimed "pretty good progress in a short period of time," since diving into Middle East peacemaking earlier this year.

Hours after North Korea renewed its call for one-on-one talks with the United States, Bush revealed he had just spoken by telephone with China's President Hu Jintao as part of his drive to defuse the nuclear crisis.

"I told President Hu that it is very important for us to get Japan and South Korea and Russia involved, as well," said Bush, who has told Pyongyang that his government will only accept talks in a multilateral setting.

Bush also made a pitch for support from Europe in the US bid to frustrate the alleged nuclear aspirations of another member of his "axis of evil," Iran.

"We've got to work in a collective way with other nations to remind Iran that, you know, they shouldn't develop a nuclear weapon," said Bush.

On another foreign policy crisis, he signalled that the time was not yet right for a long-awaited US mission to help a West African force restore peace to Liberia after President Charles Taylor leaves the country.

"The conditions that I laid out for the Liberian rescue mission still exist: Charles Taylor must go, a ceasefire must be in place, and we will be there to help ECOWAS," said Bush.

With the state of the US economy still a concern for Bush supporters, the president said he saw "hopeful signs" growth was picking up.

"Yet the unemployment rate is still too high. And we will not rest until Americans looking for work can find a job," Bush said.

The US unemployment rate shot up to a nine-year high of 6.4 percent in June as businesses axed 30,000 jobs.

Those figures may have factored into the results of a new Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll issued Wednesday which found that only 47 percent of those surveyed would vote for Bush in the 2004 election.

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