Syria nuclear briefing a warning to North Korea, Iran: Bush

Tue Apr 29, 11:57 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush said Tuesday he released details of alleged Syrian nuclear program to send a "message" to US foes North Korea and Iran that they could not hide their own nuclear activity.

In a White House news conference consumed by fears of recession stalking the US economy, the president also said he was still hopeful of a deal on a Palestinian state, and said Zimbabwe's voters must be respected.

Bush was asked why he decided to inform members of Congress about an Israeli strike on an alleged Syrian nuclear facility, and why it took him eight months to offer the briefing.

US national security officials briefed lawmakers last week, presenting intelligence they said showed Syria had been building a secret nuclear reactor for military ends.

Bush said the briefing, about a plant US officials say was being built with help from North Korea until its destruction by Israel in an air raid on September 6, was intended to advance "certain policy objectives."

"One would be to the North Koreans, to make it abundantly clear that we know more about them than they think," Bush said in the White House Rose Garden.

"Then we have an interest in sending a message to Iran and the world, for that matter, about just how destabilizing nuclear proliferation would be in the Middle East."

The president said he had not authorized the briefings before, to avoid inflaming tensions in the Middle East.

Syria denies that it was building a secret nuclear reactor.

Bush also used the news conference to talk up hopes of a deal on establishing a Palestinian state before the end of his presidency in January 2009.

He said he was "still hopeful we will get an agreement by the end of my presidency" but hit out at the Islamist movement Hamas which he blamed for destabilizing the situation.

He said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was shortly heading back to the region, adding he had spoken with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"The attitude is good, people do understand the importance of getting a state defined."

He also accused Hamas of trying to scupper attempts to forge an elusive deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

"They're the ones whose objective is the destruction of Israel," Bush said, in a White House news conference.

As fears of a recession mount, Bush also said that data to be released Wednesday would show "a slow economy" but offered no specific estimate of the gross domestic product (GDP) report.

Bush told journalists he had not been briefed on the first GDP estimate for the first quarter of 2008.

"I think (the report) will show that it is a slow economy," he said, but would not "guess" the number.

Analysts on average were expecting the Commerce Department report to show a slow 0.5 percent expansion pace, but some say the figure could be negative, reflecting a likely recession in the world's biggest economy.

The president also said the will of Zimbabwe's voters for change be respected and urged neighboring countries to step up pressure on the "failed" regime of Robert Mugabe to accept election results.

"The will of the people needs to be respected in Zimbabwe," Bush said, as the United Nations Security Council prepared to meet in New York to discuss the month-long election crisis in the southern African nation.