US President George W. Bush on Friday used the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq to urge allies to bury differences over the war and unite in the fight against terrorism.
"We will never bow to the violence of a few," Bush pledged in a White House address to representatives of 84 nations backing the US-led war on terror.
Bush acknowledged "disagreements" between "old and valued friends" over his order to invade Iraq to oust its leader Saddam Hussein.
But he added "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.
Bush vowed that the United States would not let the Iraqi people down in its efforts to bring democracy to their nation.
Still facing international criticism over the Iraq war, Bush sought to unite the international community behind his campaign against terrorism.
"There is no neutral ground between good and evil, freedom and slavery and life and death. The war on terror is not a figure of speech. It is an inescapable calling of our generation," he said.
"No concession will appease their hatred," he said.
"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.
"There can be no separate peace with the terrorist enemy. Any sign of weakness or retreat simply validates terrorist violence and invites more violence for all nations."
Bush ordered a strike against one of Saddam's Baghdad palaces on March 20 last year to set off the invasion.
But he has faced international criticism over the failure to find the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq used to justify the conflict.
And Iraq has become a key issue in the presidential election Bush faces in November with Democratic leader John Kerry saying that the president deceived Congress and the US people into approving the invasion.
But the president said that for Iraq the invasion was "a day of deliverance. For the nations of our coalition, it was the moment when years of demands and pledges turned to decisive action."
"There are still violent thugs and murderers in Iraq, and we're dealing with them. But no one can argue that the Iraqi people would be better off with the thugs and murderers back in the palaces."
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