Bush is "very smart -- a true idealist," who had "immense simplicity in how he saw the world," Blair wrote in 'A Journey,' his newly released memoir. "Right or wrong it led to decisive leadership."

Released last week, the book comes at a time when the United States is ending its combat mission in Iraq. The war was spearheaded by Bush and managed to destroy Blair's reputation in Britain, where he is still considered "Bush's poodle" for following the United States and other allies into the conflict.

While most of British politicians have recanted their support for the military mission, Blair said he "can't regret" it.

"I can say that never did I guess the nightmare that unfolded, and that, too, is part of the responsibility. The truth is, we did not anticipate the role of al-Qaida or Iran," he writes Whether we should have is another matter; and, if we had anticipated, what we would have done about it is another matter again."

The British mission in Iraq, from the start of the invasion in March 2003 until April 30, 2009, claimed the lives 179 British troops. Blair said last month he would donate all the book's proceeds and his estimated $7 million advance to a charity for ex-service members and in his book writes about the anguish he feels over those deaths.

The move has done little to repair his reputation at home. Blair had to cancel his Wednesday book signing event in London because of security concerns linked to large anti-war protests in the British capital. The decision came two days after protesters threw eggs and shoes at him at a signing Saturday in Dublin.

Repeating the rhetoric of his statements on Iraq to a British inquiry in January, Blair in the book defends his decision to go to war despite the absence of weapons of mass destruction.

"The intelligence was wrong. We admitted it. We apologized for it," he writes. "Humans make errors and, given Saddam's history, it was an understandable error."

In an interview with ABC this week, Blair said Iran was on a similar trajectory than Iraq, adding that if he was a leader today, he "wouldn't take the risk" of letting Iran building a nuclear weapon.

"I would tell them they can't have it, and if necessary they will be confronted with stronger sanctions and diplomacy, but if that fails, I'm not taking any option off the table," he said.

Blair, a Democrat, in his book reveals his good official and private relationship with Bush, a conservative, detailing several meetings with him during the build-up to Iraq war in London, Washington and at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Despite their many policy differences over issues such as climate change and the Middle East peace process, the president, Blair writes, "had genuine integrity and as much political courage as any leader I ever met."

"He was basically considered a right-wing Republican bastard for getting rid of hostile brutal dictatorships and insisting they be replaced not with friendly brutal dictatorships but with an attempt at liberal democracy," Blair writes.

Aside from the praise for Bush, Blair writes that Bill Clinton was his favorite U.S. leader, and his "political soul mate."

"He is the smartest politician I ever came across," Blair said of Clinton in the ABC interview.

The affair between Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, Blair suggests, could be linked to "his inordinate interest in and curiosity about people."

"In respect of men, it was expressed in friendship; in respect of women, there was potentially a sexual element."

earlier related report
Two US troops gunned down by Iraqi comrade after sports row
Baghdad (AFP) Sept 7, 2010 - Two American soldiers were killed on Tuesday when an Iraqi army comrade opened fire after an argument over a sports match, the first US deaths since Washington declared an end to combat operations here.

The shooting, which also left nine American soldiers wounded, happened at the Iraq's Al-Saadiq Air Base near the city of Tuz Khurmatu in Salaheddin province while a US army company was visiting local security forces.

"Iraqi soldiers and American military advisers were playing sports when a quarrel broke out between an Iraqi soldier and an American," defence ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari told AFP.

"The Iraqi soldier opened fire on them," Askari said, naming the gunman as Soran Rahman Saleh Wali.

"The American soldiers killed the Iraqi soldier. We have opened a high-level investigation into this issue."

A US military statement said: "Eleven US soldiers were engaged with small arms fire, killing two and wounding nine, inside an Iraqi army commando compound."

The gunman was a member of one of the army's elite special forces units, said Colonel Hussein Bayati, police commander for Tuz Khurmatu, north of Baghdad.

There were no details on what set off the argument or on the Iraqi soldier's possible motives.

However, Bayati said that on Monday, US and Iraqi forces "began searching houses in the neighbourhood where this soldier was from because they suspected Ansar al-Sunna (insurgent) fighters were hiding there."

It was unclear whether Wali might have already been under surveillance or if the sweep had angered him.

The shooter's family declined to speak to AFP.

US forces said the incident occurred at around 3:50 pm (1250 GMT), and that the condition of the wounded, who were evacuated to Joint Base Balad north of Baghdad, could not be confirmed.

It said the names of the killed would be released after their families were informed.

Under the terms of a bilateral security pact, American soldiers are allowed to return fire in self-defence, and take part in operations if requested by their Iraqi counterparts.

The deaths were the first American military fatalities in Iraq since the US declared an end to its combat mission in Iraq on September 1, transforming its role to what it has described as "advise and assist" operations

"This is a tragic and cowardly act, which I firmly believe was an isolated incident and is certainly not reflective of the Iraqi security forces in Salaheddin," said Major General Tony Cuculo, US commander in northern Iraq.

Tuesday's violence brought to 4,418 the total number of US soldiers who have died in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, according to an AFP tally based on independent website icasualties.org.

The shooting comes just two days after American troops helped repel a coordinated suicide attack on an Iraqi army complex in Baghdad by providing "suppressive fire" to give cover to local forces as they stormed a building in which the insurgents had hidden.

The attack, which killed 12 people, occurred in the morning at Rusafa military command headquarters, in the centre of the capital, when six suicide bombers assaulted the compound in a minibus.

Nearly 50,000 US troops remain stationed in Iraq. Last week, US Vice President Joe Biden launched the new mission while visiting Baghdad, opening a fresh phase in a seven-year deployment.

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