PRESIDENT BUSH is to tell British families bereaved by the Iraq war that their loved ones died fighting for a noble cause and that he grieves for their sacrifice.

In an interview in advance of his state visit next week, Mr Bush set out to woo Britons with a mixture of charm, flattery and statesmanship. He expressed sorrow for the victims of the war, but made clear he had no regrets over Iraq.

He acknowledged his critics and declared it “fantastic” that the British people were free to demonstrate against him.

He also sought to dispel both his warmonger image and fears of military action against North Korea or Iran by painting Iraq as a one-off. “I can understand people not liking war,” he said. “I don’t like war. War is the last choice a President should make, not the first.”

Tens of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets in protest at the President’s three-day visit next week, but despite the chaos they are expected to cause, Mr Bush said that such demonstrations reflected well on the country.

“I am so pleased to be going to a country which says that people are allowed to express their mind. That’s fantastic. Freedom is a beautiful thing. And the fact that people are willing to come out and express themselves says I’m going to a great country,” he told the Press Association.

Mr Bush will meet families of soldiers who died in Iraq and he said he would “share with them a deep grief, my sorrow for the sacrifice”. Nine thousand British servicemen are still in Iraq, with a further 2,000 are elsewhere in the Gulf, and even as Mr Bush was speaking, Jack Straw said that Britain was prepared to send more troops if necessary.

Mr Bush, however, appeared anxious to present himself as a statesman, not warmonger, and he sought to allay fears that he would take military action against Iran and North Korea, the two other members of his “axis of evil”.

He emphasised that the stand-offs with those two countries over their alleged nuclear weapons programmes could be resolved through multilateral diplomacy, and that Iraq was “unique” because of the way it had flouted world opinion for more than a decade. “Not every situation needs to be resolved through military action,” he said.

Mr Bush lavished praise on Mr Blair, paying him at least 15 compliments in a 40-minute interview. The Prime Minister was “plenty independent” he said, and stood by difficult decisions. “I admire somebody who stands tough.”

Alluding to the toll that the war took on Mr Blair’s standing within the Labour Party and the country, Mr Bush said: “I have never heard him complain about the polls, or wring his hands. Never once has he said to me, ever, ‘Gosh, I’m feeling terrible pressure’.”

Mr Bush said he had never dreamt that one day he would be staying in the surrounds of Buckingham Palace and he joked that he had already hired the tails he will wear for Wednesday’s state dinner at the Palace. But he said he had had little time to brush up on his Geordie for Friday’s visit to Mr Blair’s Sedgefield constituency, adding: “I hope they understand Texan.”

Besides the formalities of hosting a return dinner for the Queen at the American Ambassador’s residence on Thursday, Mr Bush will deliver a speech on the “close and unique friendship” between the US and UK. He will lay a wreath at the September 11 memorial in Grosvenor Square, where he will meet the British families who lost relatives in the World Trade Centre, and visit Westminster Abbey.

He will hold talks in Downing Street with Mr Blair, where the two will discuss three of the issues on which they differ — Guantanamo Bay, Iran and the European defence force — and they will stage a joint press conference.

American officials said that they may be able to strike a deal over the nine Britons held in Guantanamo Bay. The Government is pressing for concessions over the conduct of US military tribunals, which would allow detainees to appeal against any conviction only to Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Defence Secretary, and have no choice of legal representation. But British officials were more downbeat.

The President said he had thanked Mr Blair for sending Mr Straw on a mission to Tehran with the French and German foreign ministers to deliver the message that a nuclear Iran was unacceptable.

American officials are sceptical about the mission, fearing that Iran could play the Europeans for time while continuing their nuclear quest. Mr Bush avoided voicing such qualms, saying: “The Iranians must hear from a unified world that it is unacceptable for them to develop a nuclear weapon.”

But he made clear that the spread of nuclear weapons was an essential aspect of the War on Terror. “We’re at war,” he said. “We are at war, see? We’re at war now. We’re at war with terror.”

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