In a rare formal news conference, Chretien admitted there were "bridges to be rebuilt" among NATO allies, particularly with the United States, and was confident this could be done.

"Now that the war has started ... I hope it will be short, that there will be a minimum of victims, and that seems to be what is happening," Chretien said.

He admitted to being glad the coalition had apparently won the war.

"You know I would rather see the Americans win," he said. "I think it's a democracy. The British democracy or Australia ... the same thing.

"Saddam Hussein was a bad regime. I didn't want him to win.

"If there is a conflict, I wanted the Americans to win -- but I didn't want to participate."

Most questions were about the possible consequences of Canada refusing to join the US-led coalition, but from the outset Chretien insisted he did not want to spend a lot of time on the issue.

Asked whether -- after seeing television pictures of Iraqis celebrating the arrival of coalition troops -- he regretted staying out of the war, Chretien said: "Our position was that we wanted to make sure Saddam Hussein was disarmed."

He said Canada stated since last spring that it did not want military action to enforce disarmament unless it was approved by the UN Security Council.

After Canada worked hard to try to get a compromise at the United Nations, it proved impossible and "we did not go to war because we said a year ago we were to go only with the approval of the Security Council," Chretien said.

Turning to Canada's relations with its allies, particularly the United States and Britain, Chretien said: "I have made many telephone calls to certain heads of government to rebuild bridges."

Asked if Chretien would telephone Bush to start patching up relations, he said that was not necessary as his office was in constant contact with the White House and US President George W. Bush is expected to visit Ottawa in May.

"He is coming next month, unless he decides to change his mind," said Chretien. "The plans (for the visit) are proceeding and I know he wants to come to Canada."

As for post-war Iraq, Chretien said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had told him over the weekend that the reconstruction task ahead was too much for the UN to handle alone.

Specifically, Chretien felt Ottawa could help a new regime in Baghdad establish a federal government structure.

Without going into further details, he also suggested that Canada was willing to participate in some of the physical reconstruction of the war-battered nation.

SPACE.WIRE