WASHINGTON, Aug 2: US President George Bush on Monday defiantly defended the invasion of Iraq, saying the attack was "the right decision" and holding out hope that weapons of mass destruction may yet be found there.

"Knowing what I know today, we still would have gone on into Iraq. We still would have gone to make our country more secure. He (former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein) had the capability of making weapons. He had terrorist ties," he told reporters.

Mr Bush alleged that Saddam Hussein possessed arsenals of chemical and biological weapons, making that the core of his case for the invasion, but US-led forces have not found such stockpiles.

"We all thought we'd find stockpiles of weapons. We may still find weapons. We haven't found them yet," the president said. "But what we do know is that Saddam Hussein had the capability of making weapons."

"The decision I made was the right decision. The world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power," said Mr Bush, who faces mounting scepticism among the US public that the invasion was worth the cost.

The president took a thinly veiled shot at his Democratic rival for the White House, Senator John Kerry, who is expected to mount sustained attacks on Mr Bush's handling of the Iraq crisis war up to the Nov 2 election. - AFP