Iraq war made US safer: Bush

"Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq. We removed a declared enemy of America, who had the capability of producing weapons of mass murder, and could have passed that capability to terrorists bent on acquiring them," he said on Monday.

"In the world after September the 11th, that was a risk we could not afford to take," Bush said, days after the US Senate Intelligence Committee's report accused the intelligence agencies of miscalculation in assessing the threat posed by deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

America, he said, must remember the lessons of Sept 11 and must confront serious dangers before they fully materialise. "And so my administration looked at the intelligence on Iraq, and we saw a threat," he added.

Bush said the dismantling of the nuclear proliferation network run by Pakistani scientist AQ Khan and surrender of weapons by Libya have made US safer now.