BUDAPEST, June 22: US President George Bush said on Thursday that former communist Hungary’s long fight for freedom is an inspiration for Iraq as it struggles to solidify its democracy, in a ceremony on the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising here against Soviet rule.

Besieged at home over mounting US casualties in the conflict in Iraq, Mr Bush used the ceremony in Budapest to spread the word that perseverance in the name of freedom pays in the end.

Mr Bush, on Wednesday in Vienna, on a lightning European tour, tried to shore up the United States’ faltering international image, at a time when Washington stands accused of violating human rights in its fight against the world threat of terrorism.

The United States had failed in 1956 to come to the aid of Hungary’s 12-day uprising against communist tyranny, but Mr Bush said in a speech to Hungarians on a hill over the Danube River: “America honours your courage. We have learned from your example and we resolve that when people stand up for their freedom, America will stand with them.”

Soviet troops ‘crushed the Hungarian uprising but not the Hungarian people’s thirst for freedom’, Mr Bush told a crowd of 400, including the country’s president and prime minister, against a picture-perfect view of Budapest, dominated by the large dome of parliament.

Mr Bush said the new Iraqi government ‘is committed to the democratic ideals that also inspired Hungarian patriots in 1956 and 1989’, when the communist regime fell in Hungary.

“Iraq’s young democracy still faces determined enemies, people who will use violence and brutality to stop the march of freedom,” he said.—AFP