WASHINGTON, April 11: US President George Bush conceded on Friday that when he speaks of victory in Iraq, he does so to boost the morale of US troops fighting in that country.

“That's as much to try and bolster the spirits of the people in the field as well,” he told ABC News. “You can’t have the commander-in-chief say to a bunch of kids who are sacrificing that either it’s not worth it or you're losing. What does that do for morale?”

During 2006, when Iraq faced a full-blown civil war, Mr Bush kept his rhetoric upbeat saying in speeches that: “We're winning” and “We have a plan for victory.”

But in his interview to ABC News, Mr Bush acknowledged that before sending additional troops to Iraq last year, he was pessimistic about the way the war was going. “How worried were you?” he was asked.

“I was worried. Look, I’m worried any time it looks like we’re going to fail in Iraq, he said.

Mr Bush also clarified that when he said in a speech on Thursday that he will not withdraw any more troops from Iraq after July, he did not mean that he plans to keep the troops indefinitely.

“Sometimes people read what they want to in the president’s words,” he said. “My statement was, in essence, this: If General Petraeus needs 45 days, he'll have 45 days.”

In his speech on Iraq at the White House, President Bush said Gen David Petraeus, the commander of multi-national forces in Iraq, could “have all the time he needs.”

Critics of the war, including both Democratic candidates, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton took that statement as saying the President would not withdraw forces in Iraq any time soon.

“So you're not saying it would be just 45 days, or will it go beyond 45 days. You just don't know,” the interviewer asked him. “I don’t know,” Mr Bush replied. “But on the other hand, I did say that my hope is that conditions will enable us to continue return on success.”