At a White House Rose Garden press conference Wednesday the president accepted blame for the used of a now-discredited claim that Iraq sought uranium for nuclear weapons in Africa.

"I take personal responsibility for everything I say, of course. Absolutely," Bush said, after weeks of evading blame for inserting the 16-word reference into his speech.

The leader of Senate Democrats, Tom Daschle, said the admission was long overdue.

"I think that it's a very worthwhile thing for the president to take responsibility. I'm sorry it had to take this long for him to acknowledge his responsibility," he said.

The South Dakota Democrat added that there are "a number of other questions that also ought to be reviewed, and I think investigated."

"What I am troubled by is the events leading up to the State of the Union message, what may have been the abuse of intelligence to gather information, and ... the lack of real understanding about how all of that happened," Daschle said.

"We still need the kind review and investigative research done to make sure that we know, and that we also have the confidence that this will never be done again."

Another Senate Democrat, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, said the president's concession in no way lessens the mandate of members of lawmakers holding closed-door hearings into the White House use of prewar intelligence on Iraq.

"I feel very strongly as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee that all the facts have got to come out, and that's why we're going to stay at it until they do," said Wyden.

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