Updated on Wednesday, April 30, 2008, 00:00 IST

Washington, April 30: President George W Bush has that he released details of alleged Syrian nuclear programme to send a "message" to US foes North Korea and Iran that they could not hide their own nuclear activity.

In a White House news conference on Tuesday consumed by fears of recession stalking the US economy, the President also said he was still hopeful of a deal on a Palestinian state, and said Zimbabwe's voters must be respected.

Bush was asked why he decided to inform members of Congress about an Israeli strike on an alleged Syrian nuclear facility, and why it took him eight months to offer the briefing.

US national security officials briefed lawmakers last week, presenting intelligence they said showed Syria had been building a secret nuclear reactor for military ends.

Bush said the briefing, about a plant US officials say was being built with help from North Korea until its destruction by Israel in an air raid on September 6, was intended to advance "certain policy objectives."

"One would be to the North Koreans, to make it abundantly clear that we know more about them than they think," Bush said in the White House rose garden.

"Then we have an interest in sending a message to Iran and the world, for that matter, about just how destabilising nuclear proliferation would be in the Middle East."

The President said he had not authorised the briefings before, to avoid inflaming tensions in the Middle East.

Bureau Report