PRESIDENT BUSH received some unusually candid advice on his handling of the Iraq war yesterday after inviting 13 former secretaries of defence and state to the White House.

After one of the most extraordinary gatherings of current and former powerbrokers to have sat around the White House Cabinet table in recent times, Mr Bush said that he took to heart a range of views from figures who collectively have served every US president since John Kennedy.

As part of a vigorous public relations offensive on Iraq Mr Bush spent more than an hour with former defence secretaries including Robert McNamara, the Vietnam-era Pentagon chief under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, Harold Brown, who oversaw the disastrous Iranian hostage rescue attempt under Jimmy Carter, and William Perry, Bill Clinton’s Defence Secretary, who advised John Kerry during the 2004 election campaign.

Others briefed by Mr Bush and General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, included Madeleine Albright, Lawrence Eagleburger, Alexander Haig and Colin Powell.

Scott McClellan, Mr Bush’s spokesman, said that the purpose of the gathering was a hope by the White House that the prominent figures would be persuaded that there was “a clear plan in place for victory in Iraq” and would spread the word.

After the meeting Mr Bush preferred to persuade people that it was he who had done the listening.

“Not everybody around this table agreed with my decision to go into Iraq. I fully understand that,” Mr Bush said.

Mr Eagleburger said after the meeting: “You’ve got several hundred years of antagonism between Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites. If you think anybody can predict success at this stage you are wrong.”

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