But Mr Bush declined to endorse calls for an independent investigation.

Earlier today, the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, admitted that intelligence given to the administration before the Iraq war was probably flawed.

The idea of an independent commission to probe whether Saddam did, or did not, have weapons of mass destruction, has blossomed into an election-year problem for the President, with Democrats and Republicans alike supporting the idea.

Mr Bush said he wants to be able to compare the administration's pre-war intelligence with what will be learned by inspectors who are now searching for weapons in Iraq.

There is no deadline for those inspectors, the Iraq Survey Group, to complete their work.

"I want the American people to know that I, too, want to know the facts. I want to be able to compare what the Iraq Survey Group has found with what we thought prior to going into Iraq," he said.