Bush ducks Saddam handover date

WASHINGTON: President George W Bush said on Tuesday the United States will turn over former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to the new Iraqi interim government but declined to set a timetable, saying ‘‘appropriate security'''' must first be in place.
Neither the US nor the new Iraq government wants there ‘‘to be lax security and for Saddam Hussein to not stand trial,'''' Bush said in a Rose Garden news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai here.
Bush also said it will be up to the new government to determine what to do about radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. ‘‘The interim Iraqi government will deal with al-Sadr as they see fit,'''' Bush said. ‘‘They will deal with him appropriately.''''
"We''re working with the Iraqi government on a couple of issues, one is the appropriate time for the transfer of Saddam Hussein," Bush told reporters. He said the US did not want lax security to result in Saddam''s not standing trial for "the horrendous murders and torture that he inflicted upon the Iraqi people."