Media magnate Rupert Murdoch has backed US President George W. Bush's strong stance against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
He described it in a magazine interview as the right moral decision. But the News Corp chairman said that until the situation in Iraq was resolved, investment decisions would remain on hold, meaning little US economic growth in the first quarter.
In an interview with The Bulletinweekly magazine due out today, the Australian-born US citizen said he believed Mr Bush would be re-elected if he won any war with Iraq.
Asked how he felt about the issue, he said: "Oh I believe Bush is right, certainly. Well, we can't back down now, where you hand over the whole of the Middle East to Saddam, and I think Bush is acting very morally, very correctly, and I think he is going to go on with it.
"The fact is, a lot of the world can't accept the idea that America is uniquely the one superpower in the world," Mr Murdoch said.
He added if the United Nations reaffirmed its resolution 1441 "that's good enough" in terms of a mandate on Iraq from the United Nations.
Mr Murdoch said if Bush won any war with Iraq, and if the economy was then "okay" there would be no question about his re-election for another term.
"He will either go down in history as a very great president or he'll crash and burn; I'm optimistic it will be the former by a ratio of two to one," he added.
Murdoch also proclaimed British Prime Minister Tony Blair as "extraordinarily courageous and strong" on his stance on the Middle East.
AFP