THE UN: The following is an edited and abridged version of President George W Bush's address to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday:
Twenty-four months ago - and yesterday in the memory of America - the centre of New York city became a battlefield, and a graveyard, and the symbol of an unfinished war.
Since that day, terrorists have struck in Bali, in Mombasa, in Casablanca, in Riyadh, in Jakarta, in Jerusalem, measuring the advance of their cause in the chaos and innocent suffering they leave behind.
Events during the past two years have set before us the clearest of divides: Between those who seek order, and those who spread chaos; between those who work for peaceful change, and those who adopt the methods of gangsters; between those who honour the rights of man, and those who deliberately take the lives of men, and women, and children, without mercy or shame.
Between these alternatives there is no neutral ground. All governments that support terror are complicit in a war against civilisation.
And all nations that fight terror, as if the lives of their own people depend on it, will earn the favourable judgment of history.
The regime of Saddam Hussein cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction. It used those weapons in acts of mass murder, and refused to account for them when confronted by the world.
The Security Council was right to be alarmed. The Security Council was right to demand that Iraq destroy its illegal weapons and prove that it had done so. The Security Council was right to vow serious consequences if Iraq refused to comply.
And because there were consequences, because a coalition of nations acted to defend the peace and the credibility of the United Nations, Iraq is free, and today we are joined by representatives of a liberated country.
The Iraqi people are meeting hardships and challenges, like every nation that has set out on the path of democracy. Yet their future promises lives of dignity and freedom, and that is a world away from the squalid, vicious tyranny they have known.
Across Iraq, life is being improved by liberty. Across the Middle East, people are safer because an unstable aggressor has been removed from power. Across the world, nations are more secure because an ally of terror has fallen.
Our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq were supported by many governments, and America is grateful to each one. I also recognise that some of the sovereign nations of this assembly disagreed with our actions.
Yet there was, and there remains, unity among us on the fundamental principles and objectives of the United Nations. We are dedicated to the defence of our collective security, and to the advance of human rights.
These permanent commitments call us to great work in the world, work we must do together. So let us move forward.
Having helped to liberate Iraq, we will honour our pledges to Iraq, and by helping the Iraqi people build a stable and peaceful country, we will make our own countries more secure.
The primary goal of our coalition in Iraq is self-government for the people of Iraq, reached by orderly and democratic process. This process must unfold according to the needs of Iraqis, neither hurried nor delayed by the wishes of other parties.
And the United Nations can contribute greatly to the cause of Iraqi self-government. America is working with friends and allies on a new Security Council resolution, which will expand the UN's role in Iraq.
As in the aftermath of other conflicts, the United Nations should assist in developing a constitution, in training civil servants, and conducting free and fair elections.
Iraq now has a Governing Council, the first truly representative institution in that country.
Yet every young democracy needs the help of friends. Now the nation of Iraq needs and deserves our aid, and all nations of goodwill should step forward and provide that support.
The success of a free Iraq will be watched and noted throughout the region.
Millions will see that freedom, equality, and material progress are possible at the heart of the Middle East.