US: President Bush yesterday enumerated Iraq's defiance of the United Nations, Saddam Hussein's record of aggression against his own people and neighbours and why he had to be removed from power.
The following is an edited version of his address to the UN General Assembly:
The UN was born in the hope that survived a world war - the hope of a world moving toward justice, escaping old patterns of conflict and fear.
We created the UN Security Council so that, unlike the League of Nations, our deliberations would be more than talk, our resolutions would be more than wishes. After generations of deceitful dictators and broken treaties and squandered lives, we dedicated ourselves to standards of human dignity shared by all, and to a system of security defended by all. Today, these standards, and this security, are challenged.
Our common security is challenged by regional conflicts - ethnic and religious strife that is ancient, but not inevitable. In the Middle East, there can be no peace for either side without freedom for both sides. America stands committed to an independent and democratic Palestine, living side by side with Israel in peace and security. Like all other people, Palestinians deserve a government that serves their interests and listens to their voices.
Our principles and our security are challenged . . . and our greatest fear is that terrorists will find a shortcut to their mad ambitions when an outlaw regime supplies them with the technologies to kill on a massive scale.
In one place - in one regime - we find all these dangers, in their most lethal and aggressive forms, exactly the kind of aggressive threat the UN was born to confront.
Twelve years ago, Iraq invaded Kuwait without provocation. Yet this aggression was stopped - by the might of coalition forces and the will of the UN.
To suspend hostilities, to spare himself, Iraq's dictator accepted a series of commitments. He has proven instead only his contempt for the UN, and for all his pledges. By breaking every pledge - by his deceptions, and by his cruelties - Saddam Hussein has made the case against himself.
In 1991, Security Council Resolution 688 demanded that the Iraqi regime cease at once the repression of its own people. This demand goes ignored.
Last year, the UN Commission on Human Rights found that Iraq continues to commit extremely grave violations of human rights, and that the regime's repression is all-pervasive.
In 1991, the UN Security Council, through Resolutions 686 and 687, demanded that Iraq return all prisoners from Kuwait and other lands. Iraq's regime agreed. It broke its promise.
In 1991, the UN Security Council, through Resolution 687, demanded that Iraq renounce all involvement with terrorism, and permit no terrorist organisations to operate in Iraq. Iraq's regime agreed. It broke this promise. In violation of Security Council Resolution 1373, Iraq continues to shelter and support terrorist organisations that direct violence against Iran, Israel, and Western governments. And al-Qaeda terrorists escaped from Afghanistan and are known to be in Iraq.
In 1991, the Iraqi regime agreed to destroy and stop developing all weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles, and to prove to the world it has done so by complying with rigorous inspections. Iraq has broken every aspect of this fundamental pledge.
From 1991 to 1995, the Iraqi regime said it had no biological weapons. After a senior official in its weapons programme defected and exposed this lie, the regime admitted to producing tens of thousands of litres of anthrax and other deadly biological agents for use with Scud warheads, aerial bombs, and aircraft spray tanks. Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.
And in 1995, after four years of deception, Iraq finally admitted it had a crash nuclear weapons programme prior to the Gulf War. We know now, were it not for that war, the regime in Iraq would likely have possessed a nuclear weapon no later than 1993.
Today, Iraq continues to withhold important information about its nuclear programme - weapons design, procurement logs, experiment data, an accounting of nuclear materials and documentation of foreign assistance.
Iraq also possesses a force of Scud-type missiles with ranges beyond the 150 kilometres permitted by the UN.
In 1990, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the world imposed economic sanctions on Iraq. In time, Iraq was allowed to use oil revenues to buy food. Saddam Hussein has subverted this programme, working around the sanctions to buy missile technology and military materials. He blames the suffering of Iraq's people on the UN, even as he uses his oil wealth to build lavish palaces for himself, and to buy arms for his country. By refusing to comply with his own agreements, he bears full guilt for the hunger and misery of innocent Iraqi citizens.
In 1991, Iraq promised UN inspectors immediate and unrestricted access to verify Iraq's commitment to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles. Iraq broke this promise, spending seven years deceiving, evading, and harassing UN inspectors before ceasing co-operation entirely . . .
We know that Saddam Hussein pursued weapons of mass murder even when inspectors were in his country. Are we to assume that he stopped when they left? The history, the logic, and the facts lead to one conclusion: Saddam Hussein's regime is a grave and gathering danger. To suggest otherwise is to hope against the evidence. To assume this regime's good faith is to bet the lives of millions and the peace of the world in a reckless gamble. And this is a risk we must not take . . .
The US helped found the UN. We want the UN to be effective, and respectful, and successful. We want the resolutions of the world's most important multilateral body to be enforced.
If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately and unconditionally forswear, disclose, and remove or destroy all weapons of mass destruction, long-range missiles, and all related material. If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately end all support for terrorism and act to suppress it, as all states are required to do by UN Security Council resolutions.
The US has no quarrel with the Iraqi people; they've suffered too long in silent captivity. Liberty for the Iraqi people is a great moral cause, and a great strategic goal . . . The United States supports political and economic liberty in a unified Iraq . . .
My nation will work with the UN Security Council to meet our common challenge. If Iraq's regime defies us again, the world must move deliberately, decisively to hold Iraq to account. We will work with the UN Security Council for the necessary resolutions.
But the purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced - the just demands of peace and security will be met - or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.
The full text of Mr Bush's address is available at www.ireland.com