Iraq differences are in the past - Bush

US President George W. Bush told officials from 83 nations yesterday on the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war that differences over the conflict were in the past and urged no concessions in the broader war on terrorism.

"No concession will appease their hatred," Bush said of al Qaeda and its supporters. "No accommodation will satisfy their endless demands. Their ultimate ambitions are to control the peoples of the Middle East and to blackmail the rest of the world with weapons of mass terror."

Bush devoted much of a speech marking the anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq to the fight against terrorism. Many governments resist linking the two since there was no evidence connecting Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda, and Iraq only became a magnet for foreign fighters after Saddam was toppled.

In the audience in the White House East Room were ambassadors or other ranking diplomats from 83 nations, including Iraq war opponents France, Germany, Canada and Russia.

"There have been disagreements in this matter among old and valued friends," Bush said. "Those differences belong to the past. All of us can now agree that the fall of the Iraqi dictator has removed a source of violence, aggression and instability in the Middle East," he said.

Bush was trying to restore the global unanimity that existed in the war on terrorism before the Iraq conflict that produced a bitter international divide.

He was clearly speaking to the situation in Spain, where suspected al Qaeda bombings on March 11 in Madrid killed 202 people and were believed to have been a factor in Spanish voters throwing out a pro-US government in favor of Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Zapatero has called the Iraq war a disaster and pledges to withdraw his country's 1,300 troops from Iraq if the country is not placed under UN control.

"Any sign of weakness or retreat simply validates terrorist violence and invites more violence for all nations. The only certain way to protect our people is by united and decisive action," Bush said.

Bush said each attack was intended to "demoralize our people and divide us from one another" and that each attack must be met with "greater determination, deeper resolve and bolder action against the killers."

"There is no neutral ground in the fight between civilization and terror, because there is no neutral ground between good and evil, freedom and slavery, and life and death," he said.

Bush was speaking a year after he ordered US forces to enter Iraq to overthrow Saddam. Early promises the war would be swift and the Americans would be welcomed as liberators have proved to be wrong.

Now US forces, with over 500 already dead, face a prolonged stay and an increasingly violent guerrilla insurgency. The weapons of mass destruction on which Bush based the war have never been found.

Bush's opponent in the November presidential election, Democrat John Kerry, accused Bush yesterday of misleading Americans about the extent of Saddam's weapons programs or the cost.

"Simply put, this president didn't tell the truth about the war from the beginning. And our country is paying the price," he said.