LONDON, June 11: US President George Bush voiced regret over appearing like he was “anxious for war” in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, in an interview published on Wednesday. Talking to British daily The Times, he indicated he should have adopted a different tone, saying that phrases like “bring them on” or “dead or alive” indicated “that I was... not a man of peace”.

“Look, I think that in retrospect, you know, I could have used a different tone,” he said according to The Times, which quoted him as saying his rhetoric may have made people believe he was a “guy really anxious for war” in Iraq.

Bush has been widely accused of pressing for military intervention in Iraq from shortly after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, despite little or no evidence of a link with the “9/11” hijackers. Bush insisted that he had pressed hard for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

“One of the untold stories of Iraq is that we explored the diplomacy a lot,” he said.

“We all wanted to solve this 'disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences' in a diplomatic fashion. After all, I went to the United Nations Security Council,” he added.

Bush's Times interview was published after he arrived in Germany on Tuesday for talks to be dominated by the Iranian nuclear programme, part of a farewell tour of Europe before he leaves office in January. He is due in Britain on Sunday.

He said the focus of the last months of his presidency was “to leave behind a series of structures that makes it easier for the next president to be able to deal with the problems that he is going to have to face”.

“The six-party talks, for example, in the Far East, in dealing with North Korea, the Iranian multilateral framework, hopefully a Palestinian state defined by Israel and the Palestinians,” he told the newspaper.—AFP