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UNITED NATIONS: US President George W Bush defiantly told the United Nations yesterday that the war of Iraq was justified and demanded more UN help to end the deadly chaos that imperils the country's future.
Despite the violence and the collapse of his two main reasons for the war, Bush unapologetically told sceptical leaders at the UN General Assembly that they owe support to Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's fledgling government.
"The government of Prime Minister (Iyad) Allawi has earned the support of every nation that believes in self-determination and desires peace," said Bush, who was to host the Iraqi leader at the White House tomorrow.
Later, Bush and Allawi denounced the beheading of US hostage Eugene Armstrong by extremists in Iraq while warning that violence was expected to escalate before elections scheduled for January 2005.
But Bush dismissed a gloomy CIA forecast for Iraq by saying the agency was "just guessing" when it warned of a possible civil war or, in the best scenario, could cling to tenuous stability.
The president linked the insurgency in Iraq to extremist violence in Spain, Israel and Turkey, as well as the grisly hostage crisis at a Russian school. | 
