March 28, 2003	Friday	Muharram 24, 1424

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WASHINGTON, March 27: US President George Bush said on Thursday that the Iraq war would continue for as long as it took to “achieve our objective”.

Addressing a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the Camp David presidential retreat, the two leaders acknowledged that there were countries that opposed the war, but said this would not deter them from pursuing their offensive against Iraq.

They also called for restoration of the United Nations “Oil for food” programme.

The Washington Post, in its Thursday edition, quoted military experts as saying that the war could drag on for months.

“The combination of wretched weather, long and insecure supply lines, and an enemy that has refused to be supine in the face of American military might has led to a broad reassessment by some top generals of US military expectations and timelines. Some of them see even the potential threat of a drawn-out fight that sucks in more and more US forces,” the newspaper said.

Asked to comment on the assessment, Mr Bush said: “However long it takes to win, however long it takes to achieve our objective, it is important to know that (President) Saddam will be removed no matter how long it takes.”

“The important thing is that the job will be done, no point in discussing how long it is going to take. There’s absolutely no point in setting a deadline. We are doing this exactly as we set our objectives,” added Mr Blair.

The US president warned that if Iraqi forces used weapons of mass destruction against the coalition forces, President Saddam Hussein “will be tried as a war criminal”.

Replying to a question, the British prime minister admitted that a part of Europe disagreed with the war but “there’s an immense number of countries who do agree with us”.

“Ally after ally after ally stood with us and continue to participate with us in the war,” added President Bush.

Mr Blair promised to “come back and discuss how the disagreement (with other countries) arose”.

Standing alongside Mr Bush at the president’s mountaintop retreat, Mr Blair declared that “Saddam Hussein and his hateful regime will be removed from power”.

“Iraq will be disarmed of weapons of mass destruction. And the Iraqi people will be freed. That is our commitment. That is our determination, and we will see it done,” he added.

Mr Blair said the United States and Britain had decided to seek new UN resolutions on humanitarian relief, a post-war administration for Iraq and a promise to keep Iraq’s territorial boundaries intact.

About 60 per cent of Iraq’s 22 million people are fed through the UN’s oil-for-food programme, which began in 1996. Under the programme, Iraq is allowed to sell unlimited quantities of oil as long as the money goes mainly to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods.

But the UN Security Council has been bitterly divided over the decision by the United States, Britain and Spain to attack Iraq, and that division has spilled over into negotiations to revise the programme.

“No doubt, the United Nations has got to be closely involved in this process,” Mr Blair said. He said he and Mr Bush had agreed on “principles”, but that there was “a huge amount of details ... that have to be the subject of discussion”.

Mr Blair referred to the death of two British soldiers in Iraq, alleging that they had been executed. “It is an act of cruelty beyond all human comprehension,” the prime minister said.