Bush: Military Action Not First Choice

Reuters:

Military action against Iran's nuclear program is not the United States' first choice but can never be ruled out, President Bush said Friday. "First of all you never want a president to say never, but military action is certainly not, is never the president's first choice," Bush told Belgian television channel VRT, when asked if he could rule out military action against Iran.

"Diplomacy is always the president's, or at least always my first choice and we've got a common goal, and that is that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon.," he said in the interview taped in Washington earlier and broadcast before his arrival in Brussels Sunday for summits with NATO and the European Union.

EU officials want Washington to show more explicit support to efforts by Britain, France and Germany to win guarantees from Tehran that its nuclear program is peaceful -- for example by easing U.S. resistance to Iran's candidacy for the World Trade Organization. ...

"We've got a common goal and that is that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon...I think if we continue to speak with one voice and not let them split us up and keep the pressure on, we can achieve the objective," he said.