Bush in Memorial Day tribute

US President George Bush paid tribute to the country’s troops who died in battle today on the Memorial Day holiday.

He said national leaders must have “the courage and character to follow their lead” in preserving peace and freedom.

“On this Memorial Day, I stand before you as the commander in chief and try to tell you how proud I am,” he told an audience of military figures, veterans and their families at Arlington National Cemetery.

President Bush and his wife, Laura, travelled today from the White House across the Potomac River to the rolling hillsides of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

President Bush first placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and then went to an amphitheatre to speak of those who “made the ultimate sacrifice to allow a free civilisation to endure and flourish.”