Bush confident in CIA

US President George W. Bush said yesterday he had confidence in CIA Director George Tenet and considered a controversy about false US claims that Iraq tried to buy African uranium to be closed.

Tenet, appointed as head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) by former US President Bill Clinton, took responsibility on Friday for the false claim by Bush over Iraq's nuclear ambitions, which raised embarrassing questions about the way he made the case for war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

"I've got confidence in George Tenet. I've got confidence in the men and women who work at the CIA and I... look forward to working with them as we win this war on terror," Bush said in Abuja on the last leg of a five-day five-nation African tour. Asked if he considered the controversy that dogged his African tour over, he said: "I do."

Bush, seeking to win backing for the invasion of Iraq that US-led forces launched in March, cited the uranium deal in his State of the Union address in January, calling it evidence that Saddam was trying to develop nuclear weapons. The White House acknowledged last week the accusation should not have been in the speech because documents it was based on proved to be forged.

Tenet issued a statement on Friday evening in Washington, saying: "The president had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound." He said the reference to an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from Niger, quoting British intelligence, "should never have been included in the text. I am responsible for the approval process in my agency," Tenet said in the statement marking the latest twist in the controversy embroiling both the US and British governments.

In London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw defended Britain's assertion that Iraq had tried to buy African uranium, saying the claim was based on "reliable intelligence" not shared with the US. Straw confirmed that the CIA had expressed reservations to Britain about the claim, contained in a September British dossier on Iraq, but said "a judgment" was made to retain it. Bush is to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Washington this week for the first time since the controversy erupted.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the decision to put out the Tenet statement was made by the White House and the CIA after days of discussions.

"The discussion was, the CIA needs to explain what it's role was in this," he said. He said Bush had moved on and "I think frankly that much of the country has moved on as well".