Accepting 'personal responsibility' for his controversial claim in the State of the Union address that Baghdad had attempted to buy nuclear material from Africa, US President George W Bush on Wednesday claimed conditions there are growing more peaceful, despite incidents of violence.

"I take personal responsibility for everything I say, of course. Absolutely," Bush told reporters at a White House press conference. "I take responsibility for making decisions on war and peace."

"I analysed a thorough body of intelligence -- good, solid, sound intelligence -- that led me to come to the conclusion that it was necessary to remove Saddam Hussein from power," he said.

"Conditions in most of Iraq are growing more peaceful. In some areas, however, there are violent remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime joined by terrorists and criminals," he said, adding the hunt for the fallen dictator was on.

"I don't know how close we are to getting Saddam Hussein. Closer than we were yesterday, I guess. All I know is, we're on the hunt."

Bush said the coalition forces are taking the fight to the enemy and the unrelenting campaign is bringing daily results and stressed that a free and peaceful Iraq was critical to stability of the Middle East, which in turn was critical to the security of the American people.

On the contentious issue of weapons of mass destruction in the ousted Iraqi regime's possession, he said, "We know Saddam Hussein possessed chemical weapons and he also spent years hiding his weapons of mass destruction programmes from the world. Now teams of investigators are hard at work to unravel the truth."