Thursday, 12 September, 2002, 15:39 GMT 16:39 UK
Main points of Bush UN address
US President George W Bush has made his case against Iraq in a key address to the United Nations.
The main points of the speech are listed below:
Bush said we must turn from mourning September 11 and instead focus on saving other lives without fear.
He thanked the people of the world for joining the fight against terror.
The United Nations Security Council was created in the wake of World War II to prevent dictators from endangering the world.
In the Middle East, there can be no peace for each side, without freedom for both.
Palestinians deserve a government that represents their interests.
The attacks on the US showed the destructive intent of the US' enemies, and terrorists are plotting further destruction.
An outlaw regime could provide them with technologies to kill on a massive scale.
We have found that threat "in one place". Twelve years ago Iraq attacked Kuwait without provocation. If he had been appeased instead of stopped, he would have endangered the peace and well-being of the world.
Saddam has shown his contempt for the UN by breaking the pledges made when he was stopped by the last military action.
Iraq continues to commit violations of human rights. Summary execution, arrest and torture are concealed from the world by "the apparatus of a totalitarian state".
Iraq has broken a promise to block terrorism, and continues to shelter and support terrorist organisations.
Al Qaeda terrorists escaped from Afghanistan and "are known to be in Iraq".
Iraq has broken every aspect of its pledge to eliminate weapons of mass destruction and allow inspectors into the country.
UN inspections reveal the regime is expanding its ability to produce chemical weapons.
Were it not for the Gulf War, Iraq would have developed a nuclear weapon by 1993, he said.
Iraq is hiring nuclear scientists and buying material to make a nuclear weapon.
Should Iraq acquire fissile material, it would be able to build a nuclear weapon within a year.
Iraq's long-range scud missiles can inflict mass death throughout the region.
Saddam has worked around sanctions to buy military equipment. He blames Iraq's poverty on the UN, even as he buys weapons and lavish homes for himself.
Iraq repeatedly broke its weapons inspection promises, flouting the demands of the UN Security Council.
Saddam has had four years to build weapons behind the cloak of secrecy, after UN inspectors left.
Saddam's regime is "a grave and gathering danger". To believe otherwise is to gamble with peace "and this is a risk we must not take".
We've tried the carrot of oil for food and the stick of military strikes, but it hasn't worked.
If we don't act, the first time we may know Saddam has developed a weapon of mass destruction could be when "God forbid, he uses one".
He has answered a decade of UN demands with a decade of defiance.
The UN risks becoming "irrelevant" if it doesn't act. Its goals are being subverted by the Iraqi regime.
If Iraq wants peace, it will immediately foreswear all weapons of mass destruction, and stop harbouring terrorists and stop oppressing its people, in keeping with UN resolutions.
Iraq must ensure UN funds are used for Iraqi people.
Bush called for a more representative and democratic Iraqi government.
The US has no quarrel with the Iraqi people, he said. They have suffered enough.
The US supports liberty in "a unified Iraq".
Bush accused Saddam of gassing Iranians and killing Kurds.
If Iraq's regime defies us again, we must bring it to account, he said.
"The purposes of the US should not be doubted. The just demands of peace and security will be met, or action will be unavoidable and a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power."
The entire region will suffer if Saddam is not stopped, he said.
If the weapons fall into the hands of terrorists, then September 11 will be "a prelude to further horrors".
Bush called for an honest, democratic Iraqi government with respect for women.
"We cannot stand by and do nothing while dangers gather."
By heritage and by choice, the US will make a stand, he said, calling on delegates of the UN to make that stand as well.
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