Bush warns against 'Al Qaida's Iraq empire'

Washington: US President George W. Bush has vowed to prevent Al Qaida from setting up a violent, radical Islamic empire based in Iraq, which he said was Osama Bin Laden's ultimate goal.

"We know what the terrorists intend to do because they've told us and we need to take their words seriously," Bush said in a speech liberally laced with quotes from Bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks five years ago which killed around 3,000 people.

As he sought to bolster support ahead of November elections, Bush also released a White House national strategy for combating terrorism that said Americans are safer five years after the attacks but "we are not yet safe".

Addressing the Military Officers Association of America, Bush said Islamic radicals would like to obtain nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in order to "blackmail the free world and spread their ideologies of hate".

"If we retreat from Iraq, if we don't uphold our duty to support those who are desirous to live in liberty 50 years from now, history will look back on our time with unforgiving clarity and demand to know why we did not act," Bush said.

"I'm not going to allow this to happen and no future American president can allow it either," he said.

Bush quoted extensively from Bin Laden's videotaped messages and writings, comparing him to 20th century dictators like Russia's Vladimir Lenin and Germany's Adolf Hitler.

He cited a letter from Bin Laden to the former Taliban ruler, Mullah Omar, that coalition forces found in Afghanistan in 2002. Bin Laden wrote Al Qaida should launch a media campaign to tell Americans "their government would bring them more losses, in finances and in casualties", and that they are being sacrificed for big investors, "especially the Jews".

Bush said Al Qaida's vision was to create a "unified totalitarian Islamic state that can confront and eventually destroy the free world". Bin Laden has declared Iraq "the capital of the caliphate", said Bush, who has faced criticism for trying to tie Iraq into the broader "war on terrorism".

Massachusetts Democratic Senator John Kerry, the losing presidential candidate in 2004, responded that if Bush had killed Bin Laden in late 2001, "he wouldn't have to quote this barbarian's words today".