Regrets and disappointments? Bush had a few

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, winding up eight years in office, expressed regrets on Monday over policies blocked by Congress, weapons of mass destruction not found in Iraq and the harsh political tone in Washington.

But he defended his actions during one of the biggest debacles of his presidency -- Hurricane Katrina of 2005 -- and said history would be his judge after he leaves the White House on January 20.

"You know, presidents can try to avoid hard decisions and therefore avoid controversy. That's just not my nature," Bush said in his final press conference before turning power to his Democratic successor Barack Obama.

Bush, by turn wistful, reflective and defiant, conceded that mistakes had been made.

The "Mission Accomplished" banner as the backdrop for a speech on an aircraft carrier in May 2003, less than two months after the invasion of Iraq, was "clearly" a mistake, he said.

"It sent the wrong message. We were trying to say something differently," Bush said.

The Abu Ghraib scandal of U.S. soldiers mistreating prisoners in Iraq that shocked the world "obviously was a huge disappointment during the presidency," Bush said.

In recent years an increasingly unpopular Iraq war weighed down Bush's public approval ratings, which took a further hit from the economic downturn.