October 29th, 2005 2:31 pm
By Nicole Winfield / Associated Press
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, one of President Bush's strongest
supporters over Iraq, says he tried repeatedly to dissuade the American
leader from going to war and was never convinced military force was the
best way to bring democracy.
Berlusconi is facing a tough re-election battle next year, and
his popularity has fallen in part because of Italians' continued
opposition to the war. Sluggish economic growth also has hurt him.
The premier made the comments in an interview with the private
television station La7 that is to be broadcast Monday, the same day
Berlusconi is to meet with Bush in Washington. Excerpts of the
interview were reported Saturday by the Apcom and ANSA news agencies.
"I was never convinced that war was the best system to bring
democracy to the country and to get rid of a bloody dictatorship,"
Berlusconi said of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. "I tried several times to
convince the American president to not go to war."
"I believed that military action should have been avoided," he was quoted as saying.