After their meeting in Hillsborough Castle, the two leaders gave a joint press conference. Following their opening remarks, they answered questions from local and international journalists.
Q: Mr President, welcome to Northern Ireland.
I wonder if I could ask you how you feel about meeting the leaders of the republican movement, bearing in mind that, unlike Saddam Hussein, they have directly targeted British civilians, British politicians, members of the British military and the police and also, of course, that they oppose the war?
So you're welcoming Gerry Adams apparently, and yet you're not going to see someone like the Democratic Unionists who are a constitutional party opposed to terrorism.
BUSH: I am honoured to have been asked to be here to help move the process along.
These are men who have committed to an agreement, that the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach worked a long time to achieve. They signed on to a process that will yield peace. They have agreed to put hatreds in the past. They have agreed to say the history is just that, history, and they look forward to a future in which young generations of Northern Ireland can grow up in peace. That's what they've committed themselves to. And as a result of making that commitment, I am perfectly comfortable about urging them to see the process through.
There is such hope here in Northern Ireland that the past can be broken. And the Prime Minister's right when he says that when the peace process is successful here, it'll send a really important signal to other parts of the world. It'll confirm the fact that people who have a vision for peace can see that vision become a reality.
It's the same vision we need to have in the Middle East. It's a hopeful time in the Middle East as far as I'm concerned. I believe we can make substantial progress. I'm pleased with the new leader of the Palestinian Authority. I look forward to him finally putting his cabinet in place so we can release the road map.
I believe peace is possible. Being here in Northern Ireland makes me even more firm in my belief that peace is possible. I've talked at length with the Prime Minister about how hard he had to work to bring the process this far. I'm willing to spend the same amount of energy in the Middle East.
And so I hope these leaders hear me when I say: achieve the agreement because it'll have an effect beyond Northern Ireland; and I think it will.
Q: Mr President, how reliable was the intelligence that put Saddam Hussein at the site of last night's attack? Did he survive? And given the incursions in Baghdad recently, is the war nearly over?
BUSH: You know, I don't know whether he survived. The only thing I know is he's losing power. I know that, because the Royal Marines in Basra worked so hard, that the people of Basra are beginning to understand a couple of things.
One, when we said we would come and stay to achieve their liberty we meant it. That in Basra, for example, the presence of the Royal Marines is providing enough comfort for people to begin to express their own opinions, they're beginning to realise freedom is real.
These are people in the south of Iraq that had been betrayed, tortured, you know, had been told they were going to be free, took a risk in the past, and then were absolutely hammered by the Iraqi regime. They were sceptical. They were cynical. They were doubtful. Now they believe, they're beginning to understand we're real and true. And it's happening elsewhere. Freedom is spreading south to north.
So the only thing I can tell you is, is that that grip I used to describe that Saddam had around the throats of the Iraqi people is loosening. I can't tell you if all 10 fingers are off the throat, but finger by finger's coming off. And the people are beginning to realise that.
It's important for the Iraqi people to continue to hear this message: we will not stop until they are free. Saddam Hussein will be gone. It might have been yesterday, I don't know. But he'll be gone. They just need to know that. Because we're not leaving.
And not only that, they need to hear the message that we're not leaving after he's gone, until they are ready to run their own government.
I hear a lot of talk here about how, you know, we're going to impose this leader or that leader. Forget it. From day one we have said the Iraqi people are capable of running their own country. That's what we believe. The position of the United States of America is, the Iraqis are plenty capable of running Iraq. And that's precisely what is going to happen.
Q: Picking up, if I could, just on that last point, for both of you, have you agreed whether the United Nations will have any role in selecting the interim Iraqi authority or will that be entirely for the coalition?
BUSH: Yes. I mean, when we say vital role for the United Nations, we mean vital role for the United Nations in all aspects of the issue, whether it be humanitarian aid or whether it be helping to stand up an interim authority.
The Iraqi people will decide who's on the interim authority. The interim authority is a transition quasi-government until the real government shows up, until the conditions are right for the people to elect their own leadership. And the United Nations will have a vital role.
When we say vital role, that's precisely what we mean, that they will be involved, along with the coalition, in helping to stand up an interim authority. But the Iraqi people are responsible for who's on that authority.
And Tony can describe what's happening in Basra.
You might describe some of the meetings that are taking place as leadership begins to emerge.
It is a cynical world that says it's impossible for the Iraqis to run themselves. It is a cynical world which condemns Iraq to failure. We refuse to accept that. We believe that the Iraqi people are capable, talented and will be successful in running their own government.
BLAIR: I agree with that, as you would expect.
And can I just make this further point to you? The one thing that is interesting is that as people in Iraq realise that Saddam and his regime are going, as they realise that, they are coming out.
And it's not that they're welcoming us because they're welcoming foreign troops, they're welcoming the fact of their liberation from a regime, the more we know about it, the more brutal, repressive, tyrannical we see its character.
And therefore, you know, these people, given a chance, already now they're in discussion with our people inside Basra, people coming forward, people talking about those who have got support within the local community. It's not just that it's right that Iraq is run by Iraqi people; they want the chance to run their own country. You know, they haven't wanted to be under the yoke of tyranny for all of these decades.
The reason you had this incredibly tyrannical, repressive security apparatus was in order to suppress the proper feelings of the people there.
Now, of course, we're going to work with everyone. We'll work with the UN; we'll work with everyone to bring this about.
But if I can just make this point to everyone: The important thing is not to get into some battle about, you know, words of the precise role here or there, but let's all work together internationally - you know, the coalition forces, the international community together - to do what we really should be doing, which is making sure that that will of the Iraqi people is properly expressed in institutions that, in the end, they own, not any outside power or authority.
And I think, if we keep that vision in our minds, then we'll get this right.
And rather than having a sort of, you know, endless diplomatic wrangles over it, let's all just agree that the basic things that the Iraqi people want is to have a country where they are able to exploit their own wealth for their own prosperity, where they have basic protection of human rights and where they have a government genuinely representative of Iraqi people, of the full diversity of Iraqi people.
And I think whatthe President has just said there is so true that, you know, I can't tell you how many times people have said to me in these situations: "Well, you know, the outside world doesn't understand somehow these people who are living under these tyrannies, really, that's the way they live." It's not the way they want to live; it's the way they're forced to live. Give them a chance to live freely, and they will live freely.
Q: What exactly is the vital role for the UN that you both mention? How do you explain what is a vital role? And are we going to see the same UN debate over post-war Iraq that we saw before the war?
BUSH: Well, it'd be a vital role as an agent to help people live freely. That's a vital role, and that means food. That means medicine. That means a place where people can give their contributions.
That means suggesting people for the IIA [Interim Iraqi Authority]. That means being a party to the progress being made in Iraq.
And I want to thank Kofi Annan for naming a personal representative to the process yesterday. It is a positive step. We have said all along there needs to be a role for the United Nations. We said so in the Azores. We will keep repeating it.
And evidently, there's some scepticism here in Europe about whether or not I mean what I say. Saddam Hussein clearly now knows I mean what I say, and people in Iraq will know we mean what we say when we talk about freedom. And a vital role for the United Nations means a vital role for the United Nations.
BLAIR: Absolutely, and there is no reason whatever why we need to go back into the wrangles we had over the so-called second resolution.
If people keep in mind the key objective, which is the well-being of the Iraqi people, whatever is the past is the past, but this country is in the process of being liberated. If they keep in mind the well-being of the Iraqi people, then I think we all, then, share a responsibility to make that objective be fulfilled in terms of what the Iraqi people want, in terms of their democratic rights, in terms of their prosperity, in terms of their freedom. And with good will and common sense, I'm sure it can be done.