WASHINGTON, May 26: US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, the two architects of the Iraq war, have acknowledged that they made major mistakes in the execution of their war plan but refused to give a timeline for withdrawing troops from the embattled country.

At a press conference in Washington on Thursday, the two leaders who have been badly weakened by the ongoing violence in Iraq, appeared subdued and shaken.

Mr Bush described the torturing of prisoners at Abu Ghraib as the US military’s biggest mistake in Iraq. “We’ve been paying for that for a long period of time,” said the US president, his voice heavy with regret.

Mr Blair said he particularly regretted the decision to expel most members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party from the government in 2003, which caused the collapse of the Iraqi administration.

Both the leaders sought comfort in the election of a ‘constitutional government’ in Baghdad which, they said, justified their decision to invade the Arab state in 2003.

Refusing to give a timetable for troop-withdrawal, they said US and allied troops will stay in Iraq for as long as it takes to have properly trained Iraqi troops to replace them.

Mr Blair, who was in Iraq earlier this week, came close to giving a timetable when he said that Iraq’s new prime minister had rightly predicted that Iraqi troops would be able to take over security duties across the country in 18 months.

Mr Bush, however, quickly corrected the British leader saying that he would not give a timeline unless his commanders in Iraq said it was possible to do so. Mr Bush also dismissed as ‘press speculation’ reports of tentative Pentagon plans to bring home more than 30,000 US troops by the end of this year.

He insisted that the US would stay engaged in Iraq for as long as it takes to defeat insurgents and terrorists linked to Al Qaeda. “A loss in Iraq would make this world an incredibly dangerous place,” said Mr Bush while explaining why he insisted on a victory in Iraq.

The news conference, at White House’s East Room, was notable for the cowed tones and restrained manners of both the leaders. Mr Bush acknowledged that daily reports of US casualties in Iraq had caused “a sense of consternation” among the American people.

Mr Bush said he regretted challenging insurgents in Iraq to ‘bring it on’ in 2003, and said the same about his statement that he wanted Osama bin Laden ‘dead or alive.’

“Kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong signal to people,” Mr Bush said. “I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner.”

But at the press briefing, both Mr Bush and Mr Blair refused to acknowledge that it was a mistake to invade Iraq. Instead, they argued that things were finally ‘turning around’ and once the current Iraqi government stabilised, the whole world will recognise that their decision was right.