US President George W.Bush defended his decision to attack Iraq in a speech on Tuesday to the United Nations, saying the US-led war was a "serious consequence" promised by the UN Security Council.

Addressing the annual high-level debate of the UN General Assembly, Bush said that the war ousted former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was trigged by his decade-long defiance of Security Council resolutions.

"The dictator agreed in 1991 as a condition for ceasefire to fully comply with all UN Security Council resolutions, and then ignored more than a decade those resolutions," Bush said.

"Finally the Security Council promises 'serious consequences' for his defiance," he said, "and a commitment we made must have meaning."

"When we say 'serious consequences' for the sake of peace, there must be 'serious consequences," Bush said, again trying to justify the war which he himself admitted was launched on wrong information.

The UN Security Council ruled in a resolution before the war that Iraq must face "serious consequences" if once more refused to comply with council resolutions, but the council refused to grant war permit in a subsequent resolution proposed by the US and Britain. Washington and London then dropped the draft without a voting and went ahead with the war.

Source: Xinhua