PRIME MINISTER:On the 51 st state , well that is what is often said by people who oppose Britain'sstrong alliance with the United States of America . And actually it is not true to say that we don'thave our disagreements with the United States, sometimes we do. The Kyoto Protocol on ClimateChange2 was an example of that. But I am proud of our relationship with the United States and I amproud of the partnership that we have . But I don't think that we should see a strong relationshipwith the United States as the only strong relationship we can have. The problems that we face areproblems to do with global terrorism and weapons of mass destruction in the hands ofirresponsible people, I think they are climate change, I think it is economic globalisation, I think it isto do with how we extend development to the poorest parts of the world. But I think thosechallenges are best dealt with by nations working together. So we have a close relationship with theUnited States, but we are also part of the European Union. I would like a closer relationship betweenthe UK and China, because I think how China develops in this international framework is going to bevitally important. I think 21 st century politics is about nations coming together on a commonagenda. Now that means in my view, not that we come together simply on an agenda thatAmerica sets, but that we come together on an agenda that we set together. I think that the pathfor Britain is not to be worried about our alliance with the United States, I think it is good that wehave got an alliance with the United States, but I think we should be using that influence to try andbring the United States and other countries together on a common agenda that we are all happywith, that your leadership here in China is happy with, the European Union, the Russians, countrieslike India that are developing too . We have all got to get in the same place on the same agenda,and that is what we are working towards, because I think that is the best thing for people . .. I reallydo.

　　QUESTION:You are around my father's age and like my father. Would you tell me here honestly, liketalking to your own children, that you never lied on the Iraq war?

　　PRIME MINISTER:What would I say to my children? What I would say to them is this, that in the endas a political leader you have got to take the decisions that you think are right, and those decisionsare sometimes very, very difficult. But I believe passionately in relation to Iraq, we could not allowSaddam Hussein to carry on developing weapons of mass destruction3 , and don't be in any doubtthat he was doing it, because we had 23 different United Nations resolutions about the very issue ofSaddam and weapons of mass destruction. So please don 't anyone here think this is somethingthat suddenly was dreamed up by the Americans or the British , it was there , it was a serious issue. That is why the United Nations inspectors were in Iraq throughout the 1990s. They were thenforced to leave at the end of 1998, it was why they went back in November after the UnitedNations resolution. So I don't have any doubt about the threat that he posed, and I don't haveany doubt either about the danger of that threat in the hands of a man like Saddam. It is difficult forpeople here just to appreciate4 this, but out of a country of 23 million, 4 million of its people werein exile —4 million of them were in exile . Literally5 tens of thousands of children used to die ofmalnutrition every single year, of preventable diseases, because of the way he ran the country.And to allow someone like that to carry on being a security threat to the world I thought was thewrong thing, so I took the action that I did. Now there will be people here , and I totally understandit, who disagree with that decision, and the difficult thing about being a political leader is that in theend you have to take the decisions that you believe are right and stand by them. I took thedecision I thought was right and I stick by it. And that is what I would say to my children oranybody else's children.

　　練習題：

　?、? Matching:

　　1. prime minister A. homeless

　　2. alliance B. agreement

　　3. protocol C. decision

　　4. resolution D. premier

　　5. appreciate E. union

　　6. in exile F. understand

　?、? Questions :

　　1. Who is the head of Iraq ?

　　2. How many resolutions UN passed to forbid Saddam Hussein to carry on developing weapons ofmass destruction?

　　3. Why did newspaper cuttings comment that the UK had become the 51st state of the UnitedStates?