Bush seeks more help in Iraq from other nations

CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush said Monday he is working to persuade more nations to help in Iraq, where Saddam Hussein loyalists are killing coalition forces in a war that persists alongside rebuilding efforts.

Speaking at his Texas ranch with the leader of one supportive country, Premier Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Bush said, "The more people involved in Iraq, the better off we will be."

At the same time, he accused the governments of Syria and Iran of harboring terrorists and said terrorism was the greatest obstacle to peace in the region.

"This behavior is completely unacceptable," Bush said. "States that support terror will be held accountable."

Berlusconi's visit to the ranch on Sunday and Monday gave Bush a chance to show that not all Europe is cool to his policies, and that trans-Atlantic relations remain strong even though France and Germany didn't back the war effort.

"Defending freedom requires cost and sacrifice. The United States is grateful for Italy's willingness to bear the burdens with us," Bush said.

For Berlusconi, the current president of the 15-nation European Union, the stay was a reward from Bush for joining with Britain and Spain in support of the war.

Berlusconi's support has made him unpopular with Germany and France, and his tendency toward brashness has further muddied his relations with Germany. On only the second day of his six-month term as EU president, he told a German lawmaker in the European Parliament he would recommend him for a role in a movie as a Nazi concentration camp guard.

Bush and Berlusconi, both wearing cowboy boots and navy sport coats, talked about stopping the spread of nuclear arms, achieving peace in the Middle East, fighting terror and mending fissures in U.S.-European ties. "We're going to feed him some chicken," Bush said at the end of the brief news conference held in a building near a helicopter landing zone at the ranch.

The United States is looking to other nations, including those in Europe, to help stabilize Iraq. France, Germany and India have refused a U.S. request to provide troops unless there is a U.N. mandate.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was at the White House last week, has said that a new resolution under discussion would broaden the current U.N. mandate in Iraq and internationalize the U.S. and British operation. The U.N. Security Council declined to back the U.S.-led war.

The White House doesn't think any new mandate is needed. Yet Bush said he had been in close contact with Annan to discuss various ways to involve other nations, even as attacks on U.S. soldiers continue.

"This extension of hostility is really a part of the war to liberate Iraq," Bush said. "We're patient. We're strong. We're resolute and we will see this matter through. And obviously, the more help we can get, the more we appreciate it."

When asked whether countries that did not participate in the coalition would be able to secure contracts for reconstruction in Iraq, Bush said: "The reconstruction effort shouldn't be viewed as a political exercise. It shouldn't be viewed as an international grab bag."

On other subjects:

-- Bush said that China, South Korea and other U.S. allies need to pressure North Korea to drop any ambitions of building nuclear weapons and turn to negotiations.

"I believe we can solve this issue diplomatically by encouraging the neighborhood ... to tell Kim Jong Il that a decision to develop a nuclear arsenal is one that will alienate you from the rest of the world," he said.

North Korea told U.S. officials in early July that it had completed reprocessing 8,000 reactor fuel rods, enough weapons-grade plutonium for about five or six nuclear bombs in addition to the one or two U.S. officials believe Pyongyang may already have.

-- The president said he had sent U.S. forces to protect the American Embassy and U.S. interests in Liberia where heavy fighting engulfed the capital and many deaths were reported. Bush said he would work with the United Nations to help restore a cease-fire.

Berlusconi, using the forum to address fellow Europeans, had soothing words for his neighbors.

"My belief is that we really need to support and develop the culture of union and cohesion, and certainly not nurture the culture of division," the Italian leader said through an interpreter. "Selfishness, narcissism and division shall never win. We need to revive the huge strength of cohesion. ... This is the message which I'm going to bring back to my European allies."