US President on Saddam's Exile

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, January 31, 2003

US President on Saddam's Exile

Joining the chorus to press Iraqi President Saddam Hussein into exile, US President George W. Bush said Thursday that he would welcome such an arrangement to avoid a possible war.

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Joining the chorus to press Iraqi President Saddam Hussein into exile, US President George W. Bush said Thursday that he would welcome such an arrangement to avoid a possible war.

"Should he (Saddam) choose to leave the country, along with a lot of the other henchmen who have tortured the Iraqi people, we would welcome that, of course," Bush told reporters at the Oval Office during a joint appearance with visiting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Bush said he told Berlusconi that the use of military troops ishis "last choice," not his first.

Echoing some earlier comments made by his national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Bush indicated that the Iraq issue now is "a matter of weeks, not months."

"In other words, for the sake of peace, this issue must be resolved. Hopefully it can be done peacefully," Bush said.

In a clarification about his own comments, Bush stressed that Iraq must be disarmed regardless the fate of President Saddam.

"I think that no matter how Mr. Saddam is dealt with, the goal of disarming Iraq still stays the same, regardless of who is in charge of the government," he said. "That's very important for theIraqi people to know," Bush added.

Berlusconi said the world has a right to find out where Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction have ended up.

He said in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on Washington and New York, there is a real danger that the terrorist may somehow avail themselves of such weapons to produce a terrible disaster.

The prime minister urged Iraq to reveal and account for the weapons it has on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 1441.

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