Iraq/terror report declassified

2006-09-26 18:35

Washington - US President George W Bush on Tuesday said he had ordered partial declassification of a secret US government intelligence assessment after reports that it found the Iraq war fuelled terrorism.

Bush also condemned the leak of the document which he said was released to newspapers for political purposes ahead of congressional elections in November.

A clearly angered Bush said that the "key judgments" section of the national intelligence estimate on Iraq and terrorism would be made public "as soon as possible".

And he also took aim at unidentified officials who provided information about the report, which was first disclosed to the New York Times at the weekend.

"Here we are coming down the stretch in an election campaign and it's on the front page of your newspapers," Bush said.

"Isn't that interesting? Somebody took it upon themselves to leak classified information for political purposes."

- AFP