President Bush has acknowledged that he was “unprepared for war” when he arrived in the White House at the start of an administration that would largely be defined by terror attacks at home and military conflict abroad.

In an interview broadcast last night Mr Bush said that he had not campaigned for the presidency on the basis that he anticipated handling an attack, adding: “One of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen.”

With less than two months left in office Mr Bush is spending much of his time contemplating his place in history, declaring that his “biggest regret” were the mistaken claims in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq about Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction.

“I wish the intelligence had been different,” he said, before pointing out that he had not been alone in making allegations that turned out to be false. “A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein.

“It wasn’t just people in my Administration. A lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington, during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence.”

Asked whether he would have still ordered an invasion knowing that Saddam had no such weapons, the President declined to speculate, saying: “That is a do-over that I can’t do.”

He also listed the failure to pass immigration reform or maintain the spirit of unity that characterised America after 9/11 as other major regrets. But for all the disappointment that has left Mr Bush as one of the most unpopular presidents on record, he hopes to be remembered as a man who “didn’t sell his soul for politics”. He said: “The thing that’s important for me is to get home and look in that mirror and say, ‘I did not compromise my principles’. And I didn’t. I made tough calls. And some presidencies have got a lot of tough decisions to make.”

Claiming to have achieved reforms in policy areas like education and international HIV/Aids relief, Mr Bush said that his Administration had responded promptly to the economic crisis. “When you have the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Fed say, ‘If we don’t act boldly, we could be in a depression greater than the Great Depression,’ that’s an ‘uh-oh’ moment,” he said.

Asked if last month’s elections should be seen as a repudiation of his eight years in office, Mr Bush replied: “I think it was a repudiation of Republicans. I’m sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me. I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy.”

Saying that he was was looking forward to having a normal life away from the limelight, Mr Bush said that his parting words to Mr Obama will be: “If I can help you, let me know.”

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