Iraq is not going to starve to death because of the absence of assistance from Arab countries.

Our gratitude to the American people is immense and we should never be embarrassed to express it.

To move any regime you need to have co-operation and co-ordination between Kurds, Shia Arabs, Sunni Arabs, the people and the army. Until we have this we cannot change the regime.

My door will always be open to those who genuinely renounce violence and seek peaceful accommodation into our nascent democracy.

As president of Iraq, I shall strive to represent the diversity of a country that has too often in the past denied difference.

Conciliation is not capitulation, nor is compromise to be deemed equivalent to imbalanced concession.

We must acknowledge that for scores of years the Iraqis have offered martyrs and victims but have not been able to change the regime.