ITEM:

BRUSSELS - Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht on Wednesday hit out at the speech given by US President George W Bush to the United Nations where he defended the war in Iraq.
'I hope that in reality he thinks differently to what he was saying,' said De Gucht on Wednesday, adding that he did not believe the optimistic picture given by Bush reflected the true situation. 'If not, then we have a real problem,' he added. 'For Europeans his declarations appear to show he is not living on the same planet.' 'Even the average British politician does not believe these things any more.'

But De Gucht conceded that the reconstruction of Iraq was important and that the UN still had a role to play.