"Intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush said.

WASHINGTON, December 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Defiant US President George W. Bush acknowledged for the first time Iraq was invaded on wrong intelligence and took the blame for the invasion-turned-occupation, but insisted on defending it and reiterated his staunch support for the so-called "preemptive doctrine".

The president took responsibility for launching the March 2003 invasion based on intelligence that "turned out to be wrong" about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, none of which were found, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq -- and I'm also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities. And we're doing just that," he said Wednesday.

Bush, however, defended his decision to invade Iraq and reserved the right to preemptive war in the future.

"In an age of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, if we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long," he said in a speech aimed at shoring up flagging US support for the lingering occupation.

Bush's new admission was significant in that he rarely admits mistakes, although he has acknowledged failures in US intelligence on Iraq before, Reuters commented.

Bush's mistake in Iraq has claimed thousands of lives on both the Iraqi and American sides. US death toll has risen beyond 2,140 soldiers in fresh statistics, reported AFP.

On the Iraqi side, over 100,000 civilians -- half of whom women and children -- have lost their lives since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and until last year, according to a study published by Lancet, a respected British medical weekly.

Bush's Iraq comments came as the latest of a series of four speeches outlining his Iraq strategy and trying to bolster American support for the war, reported Reuters.

Bush's job approval ratings have sunk sharply since his November 2004 reelection because of high gas prices, worries about the economy and growing concerns about Iraq as the US death toll increases, reported AFP.

In a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Wednesday, 60 percent of respondents said they favored a gradual reduction of US troops from Iraq, up four percentage points from last month.

In what some political analysts have perceived to be a move by Bush to talk more frankly on the US difficulties in Iraq, Bush also admitted to "tactical mistakes" in an interview with Fox News.

"No question we made some, I would call them, tactical mistakes," he told Fox.

The US president, who embraced preemptive war as US strategy after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, did not name any potential targets, but said the Iraq vote would put pressure on the governments of Iran and Syria.

"We are living through a watershed moment in the story of freedom," he said. Iraq "will be a model for the Middle East. Freedom in Iraq will inspire reformers from Damascus to Tehran."

But he warned violence in Iraq would continue even after the vote, and laid out how to measure progress towards the day when the United States can bring home its roughly 160,000 troops.

Bush said victory will have been achieved when "extremists and Saddam loyalists" are no longer a threat to Iraq's democracy, when Iraqi security forces are self-sufficient and when Iraq is not a "safe haven" for terrorists.

"These objectives, not timetables set by politicians in Washington, will drive our force levels in Iraq," said the president. "We cannot -- and will not -- leave Iraq until victory is achieved."

His comments quickly drew fire from 40 Senate Democrats and one independent who sent him a letter demanding he provide a plan that identifies "the remaining political, economic, and military benchmarks that must be met and a reasonable schedule to achieve them."

"The president's speech today failed to provide the American people with any insight into his strategy for completing the mission," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat.

Top members of the House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees the defense budget said they heard the Pentagon would seek another $80 billion to $100 billion for the Iraq war next year, although they said the figure could change.

That would come on top of the $50 billion for the war Congress was expected to approve in the next few days.

Bush acknowledged that the war had sharply divided the United States and that intelligence about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons programs had turned out to be false.

But he sharply rebuked "irresponsible" charges that he had deliberately misled the country.

"These charges are pure politics. They hurt the morale of our troops," he declared, saying that even countries which opposed the war agreed that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction.