26 October 2004	Tuesday	11 Ramazan 1425

MANILA, Oct 25: US President George W. Bush's war on terrorism has been "beneficial" for the Philippines despite questions over how it is being waged, President Gloria Arroyo said Monday.

She said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's comments last month - that he believed the war to remove Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was illegal - was "a political issue that is being used in the US (presidential) campaign)."

The legality of the Iraq war was "for international courts to decide, if there is ever such a court," Arroyo told the Foreign Correspondents Association here in a press forum.

She said she did not want to "meddle in the politics of another country."

Nevertheless, "regardless of whether some of the details are correct or not in the policies of our allies," Manila's partnership with the US and other foreign allies in the war against terrorism had been "mutually beneficial".

Arroyo said the partnership "has brought up a lot of capability to upgrade our own military and defense forces in winning our own battles here in the Philippines" against militants linked to the Al-Qaeda network blamed for the US terrorist attacks.-AFP