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Bush says Blair had option to withdraw from Iraq invasion

Hasan Suroor

British Premier insisted he would not abandon ally

LONDON: It is now official. For the first time, U.S. President George W. Bush has publicly disclosed that, in the run-up to the Iraq invasion in March 2003, he offered British Prime Minister Tony Blair the option to withdraw from the U.S.-led coalition to avoid a confrontation with his MPs who were opposed to the war.

But, according to him, Mr Blair insisted that he was "staying'' even if it meant losing his job.

The disclosure is made by a British journalist, Con Coughlin, who interviewed Mr. Bush at length for his book "American Ally: Tony Blair and the War on Terror".

He quotes Mr. Bush as saying: "There was the moment during this period [March 2003] where he had a confidence vote — very dramatic. Of course, we were watching this very closely. And it was that period of time, during a phone call, when I told Tony, I said: `Rather than lose your Government, withdraw from the coalition' — because I felt it was very important for him to be the Prime Minister at this point in our relationship ... And that's when he told me, `I'm staying, even if it costs me my Government.'''

When Mr Coughlin asked Mr Blair why he did not accept Mr. Bush's offer, he said because he thought it was the "right thing'' to stand by his American allies. "This idea that when the going gets tough, you just walk away and leave them to get on with it, I just don't like it. And I had made up my mind I was going to come with them. I thought it was the right thing to do,'' he said.

U.S. soldiers killed

AP reports from Baghdad:

Three U.S. soldiers were killed on Sunday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb northwest of capital, the U.S. command said. That brought the number of Americans killed this weekend in the capital area to eight. Five Americans died on Saturday in bombings in the southern area of the capital, the command said.

All the dead were assigned to the Army's Multinational Brigade-Baghdad which is responsible for security in Baghdad and surrounding areas.

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