Former US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage says he was foolish to have revealed the identity of a CIA employee.

President George Bush has defended the quality of intelligence he receives as “darn good”, despite an uproar over disputed reports that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa for nuclear weapons.

President George W Bush said today he had confidence in CIA Director George Tenet despite his agency’s failure to warn Bush against making allegations about Iraq’s nuclear weapons programme which were later found to be false.

AHEAD of his first trip to Africa, US President George W Bush was last night set to announce a $100 million counter-terror plan for the continent and address one of its worst conflicts by calling on Liberian President Charles Taylor to resign.

Efforts to find peace in the Middle East took more serious blows today as the Israeli prime minister vowed to hunt Hamas militants “to the bitter end” and the Islamic terror group threatened to unleash multiple attacks.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush reprimanded Israel for yesterday's attack on a senior Hamas leader that killed a bystander and a bodyguard, warning that such a strike "does not contribute to the security of Israel".

US President George Bush said he was “deeply troubled” by Israel’s helicopter attack on a senior Hamas leader that killed a bystander and a bodyguard in Gaza City today.

After winning new funds for fighting Aids, world leaders at the G8 summit turned their attention today to global problems like terrorism, nuclear proliferation and the world economy.

ISRAEL and the Palestinians put a positive gloss yesterday on talks between their prime ministers, setting the tone for a three-way summit led by US President George W Bush on promoting a peace “road map”.

IRAN yesterday warned Washington to stay out of its internal affairs, amid US newspaper reports the White House was contemplating stirring up a popular revolt against the Islamic republic.

CHRISTIE WHITMAN, sometime opponent of the Bush administration over environmental issues and a lightning rod for the administration’s critics, resigned yesterday as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

DESPITE a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings, Israel relaxed its military grip yesterday in an area of the Gaza Strip where the first steps could be taken to fulfil a US-backed peace plan.

President Bush called Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas today to reiterate the need for both Palestinians and Israelis to fight terror and resume peace negotiations.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush’s spokesman Ari Fleischer yesterday announced he is resigning this summer to pursue more relaxing endeavours “after 21 years of doing nothing but government and politics”.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, the public face of the Bush administration through two wars and a terrorist attack, is quitting.

Saudi Arabia acknowledged gaps in security and revealed that 15 Saudis carried out the deadly car bomb attacks in Riyadh – a startling admission considering the Arab kingdom took five months to confirm most of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers were Saudi.

Washington has urged the United Nations to follow its example and lift economic sanctions against Baghdad.

US intelligence analysts have detected slight “increases of activity” around a North Korean nuclear plant but have made no “hard conclusions” on whether the country is reprocessing nuclear fuel for potential weapons use, US officials said yesterday.

US President George W Bush is set to announce that major combat in Iraq is over.

US diplomats met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and newly-elected Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas yesterday to present them with an internationally backed Mideast peace plan that envisions Palestinian statehood within three years.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pledged during an unannounced visit to Iraq yesterday that his troops would leave as soon as possible, but fresh bloodshed erupted at an anti-American protest.

President George Bush will announce tomorrow night that major combat in Iraq has ended from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Pacific.

PRIME Minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas presented a new Cabinet to Yasser Arafat, ending a stand-off with the Palestinian leader over its composition, officials said yesterday, and ensuring that a US-backed peace plan remains on track.

HUGE crowds of ecstatic Shi’ites surged through the holy city of Kerbala yesterday, ending a pilgrimage that signalled to Washington they will be a powerful force in the new Iraq.

US officials sought to discredit the United Nations’ weapons inspectors in the period ahead of the outbreak of war against Iraq, chief investigator Dr Hans Blix claimed yesterday.

HOPES that reformist Palestinian prime minister-designate Mahmud Abbas will declare a cabinet were fading yesterday after he said he would no longer discuss the formation of a new government with Yasser Arafat.

The job of rebuilding Iraq from its war-torn ruins begins today with the first of a series of meetings to shape an interim authority and a future government.

THE US ratcheted up the pressure on Syria yesterday by threatening sanctions over charges that Damascus is harbouring Iraqi leaders, developing chemical weapons and supporting terrorism.

US MARINES stormed into Saddam Hussein’s final stronghold yesterday, seizing control of his hometown Tikrit, effectively sealing the US and British victory in the Iraq war and allowing the Bush administration to issue some sombre warnings to Syria.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin called for a leading UN role in post-war Iraq yesterday as the leaders of France, Germany and Russia held a summit to try and limit US control in Baghdad after the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

US President George W Bush, launching a sweeping media campaign in war-torn Iraq, said in a televised address yesterday: “Your nation will soon be free.”

Iraq was waking up to a future free of Saddam Hussein today while US forces continued to tighten their grip on the capital Baghdad.

THE White House said yesterday it would consider military action in Iraq a success even if US forces failed to find President Saddam Hussein, whose appearance on Iraqi television could prove he survived a US bombing raid on the first night of the war.

The first sizeable relief convoy set out for Iraq in a biting sandstorm today as allied forces struggled to clear the way for more aid shipments, using dolphins to remove mines from waterways and hunting Iraqi fighters around the port of Umm Qasr.

THE US unshackled the full fury of its military, unleashing a fearsome ‘shock and awe’ air campaign on Iraq, with the fate of Saddam Hussein still a mystery.

IRAQI state-run television yesterday aired a tape purporting to show Saddam Hussein addressing his people after the first US airstrikes, mocking US President George W Bush and calling the attacks a “shameful crime”.

The White House tonight delivered a grim message to the American public.

The Baghdad streets were eerily quiet today as the US deadline approached for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq or face a massive military onslaught.

US President George W Bush last night set the US and Britain on course for war within days to depose Saddam Hussein.

US President George W Bush tonight set the US and Britain on course for war within days to depose Saddam Hussein.

War against Saddam Hussein and Iraq ws looking almost certain tonight after the US and Britain said that their efforts at diplomacy had failed.

The United States has rejected out of hand a proposal by Chile to give Saddam Hussein a last chance to disarm peacefully, leaving no compromise in sight and casting further doubt on any United Nations backing for war.

White House aides said US President George Bush approved the summit on the Azores and a brief extension of diplomacy out of respect for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose support for the US president has drawn severe criticism in Britain.

US president George Bush has agreed to work for a peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis, a spokeswoman said today, as a US aircraft carrier docked off the South’s coast in a show of military might.