BLITZER:
Prime Minister, welcome to the United States, thanks very much for joining us. As we speak, you've just met with the President, is there any daylight between the Australian position and the US position as far as troop deployments post-June 30th in Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER:
No there isn't. Our objectives are the same and we both welcome the formation of the Iraqi interim government. This is a huge step forward because you have Iraqis being identified not only by their own people but by the rest of the world as the leaders of that country and this is a very necessary step down the path to a democratic Iraq in the future.
BLITZER:
Australia, like Britain, the key allies of the US going into the war in Iraq, what is your understanding right now as to how this interim government in Iraq could force a withdrawal of coalition forces if that's what they wanted to do?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that is academic, they're not going to because the security situation requires the continued presence of the coalition and that of course in troop numbers is overwhelmingly American, although there are significant numbers from other countries, particularly the British and we have a small force there as well but realistically...
BLITZER:
Let me interrupt with a second with all due respect, if there's full sovereignty for this Iraqi Government starting July 1st, theoretically, and it is theoretically they could say get out and you'd have to get out.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well obviously we're not going to stay if we're not wanted, the point I'm making is we'll continue to be wanted until the security situation stabilises and until there is both the leadership and the security wherewithal inside Iraq from local sources to keep the security. We have no desire to occupy a foreign country and if I were an Iraqi I would want to run my own country as soon as possible but given the history of what's occurred the security situation will need to be stabilised and that will need the help of the coalition.
BLITZER:
What is your understanding of the definition of full sovereignty in the period after June 30th before the elections scheduled for January of next year? Full sovereignty in Iraq, what does that mean to you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it means, I mean theoretically they could ask people to go but the reality is it's not going to happen...
BLITZER:
Will they control their oil for example?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well of course they'll have their oil, of course they have and there's never been the intention of the coalition to take Iraq's oil. Iraq's oil belongs to the Iraqi people, that's always been my view and they need it to help in the rebuilding process. We didn't go there to ransack the assets of that country, we went there as part of a coalition to deal with somebody who'd been in serial non-compliance with United Nations resolutions and had been a very bad loathsome dictator who murdered his people.
BLITZER:
How surprised are you that in the year since the war, or the year plus since the war, no significant stockpiles of chemical or biological or nuclear weapons have been found in Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I along with everybody else is surprised because the intelligence on that seemed very strong. We've certainly found evidence of WMD programmes, we've certainly found plenty of evidence from the Iraq survey group of the continuing desire on the part of Saddam Hussein to maintain a capacity to develop chemical and biological weapons and that work continues. But the intelligence we have at the time was very strong, otherwise we'd have had a different view.
BLITZER:
There's a suggestion here in the United States now, as you well know, that Ahmed Chalabi among others, an Iraqi exile leader, basically sold the US and the coalition a bill of goods as far as Iraqi WMD is concerned.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well so far as Australia is concerned we didn't have any contact with Chalabi, from my recollection. Obviously we drew a lot of our intelligence advice from both the Americans and the British but the intelligence advice was not entirely based on what Mr Chalabi said.
BLITZER:
How popular or unpopular in this Australian role in Iraq right now back home?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's less popular now than it was a few months ago because we've really gone through a very bad month, or six weeks. We've had the upsurge of violence, we've had the prisoner abuse issue, it's been a low point the last four or six weeks and naturally public opinion has shifted to a negative stance but we're now looking forward to the next stage and the naming of the interim government is so important because here are Iraqis coming up to the crease, or the plate as you'd call it, and really saying well we're prepared to lead, we're prepared to identify with the aspirations of the Iraqi people.
BLITZER:
How surprised were you, speaking of intelligence, that as we speak right now we're just getting word that George Tenet, the CIA director, has suddenly resigned?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I've been in politics long enough never to get too surprised by anything. But George has done a fantastic job as head of the CIA, I don't know his reasons and until they're amplified there's really not much more I can say expect to record my gratitude to him for the wonderful intelligence co-operation that took place between the CIA and the intelligence agencies in Australia during his term.
BLITZER:
No bitterness that the Australian Government may have been mislead by the US intelligence community going into the war?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't feel any bitterness because I know that intelligence is an inexact science and it wasn't only American intelligence but there was quite a lot of British intelligence, much of which came from different sources. Intelligence can never get it 100 per cent correct and intelligence is an imput to policy making, intelligence is not the policy making itself.
BLITZER:
Prime Minister, welcome to the United States.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]