US President George W. Bush said Friday he would hand successor Barack Obama a Middle East in which Iran still seeks nuclear arms and the Arab-Israeli conflict remains "the most vexing problem."
In remarks prepared for delivery at a forum on the region, Bush charged that Tehran and Damascus still sponsor terrorism, said the Iraq war has been bloodier and costlier than expected and that democratic reforms have come "in fits and starts" while peace efforts have suffered "unfortunate setbacks."
"Despite these frustrations and disappointments, the Middle East in 2008 is a freer, more hopeful, and more promising place than it was in 2001," he said 46 days before he hands Obama the keys to the White House.
Bush warned that Iran's suspect nuclear program "remains a major threat to peace" and warned anew that Washington will not permit Tehran to get an atomic arsenal. Obama has vowed to "do everything in my power" to that same end.
"We have made our bottom line clear: For the safety of our people and the peace of the world, America will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon," said Bush, who was to deliver the speech at 5 pm (2200 GMT).
Bush, the first sitting US president to call for an independent Palestinian state at peace with Israel, defended his approach to ending the six-decade conflict despite a lack of concrete progress from US-backed negotiations.
"On the most vexing problem in the region -- the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- there is now greater international consensus than at any point in recent memory," he said.
Bush called the two-state approach "one of the highest priorities of my presidency," described talks following a US-sponsored November 2007 conference in Annapolis, Maryland, as "determined and substantial."
"While the Israelis and Palestinians have not yet produced an agreement, they have made important progress," he said. "They have laid a new foundation of trust for the future."
The Bush administration blamed Israeli political turmoil in November as it all but ruled out a peace deal in 2008 to pave the way for an independent Palestinian state living side-by-side at peace with Israel.
But even before that, revived peace efforts had yet to resolve any major core disputes, and progress seemed difficult in the face of the Palestinian rift pitting president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah against the Islamists of Hamas.
Hamas has controlled Gaza since seizing control in June 2007, while Abbas has controlled the West Bank from his headquarters in Ramallah.
Obama has vowed to continue to support the talks.
Bush fiercely defended his decision to invade Iraq in March 2003, but called the war "longer and more costly than expected," while pointing to Iraq's fledgling democracy as one of the hopeful signs in the region.
He also cited Lebanon's "Cedar Revolution" against Syrian sway, Libya's decision to halt its quest for nuclear weapons, increased enthusiasm for democratic reforms, and prosperity in places such as the United Arab Emirates.
"Iran is facing greater pressure from the international community than ever before," while terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda "are increasingly facing ideological rejection in the Arab world," he said.
"These efforts have not always gone according to plan, and in some areas we have fallen short of our hopes," said Bush, who made no mention of Obama in his speech.
"It's rather difficult to see that we did not see a sharp deterioration in the American position in the Middle East," said Anthony Cordesman, an expert at the Center of Strategic and International Studies think tank.
"It's very difficult to point to any achievement. If there have been achievements almost all come from the United States military," he told AFP.
