Bush scolds "brutal regimes" as he pushes democracy

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday rallied fellow U.N. members to what he called a mission of liberation and named Belarus, Syria, Iran and North Korea as "brutal regimes" that deny people their rights.

With national representatives seated before him on the opening day of the U.N. General Assembly, Bush also scolded the governments of Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Cuba as he called for the spread of democracy, a consistent theme of his U.N. speeches.

"This great institution must work for great purposes: to free people from tyranny and violence, hunger and diseases, illiteracy and ignorance and poverty and despair. Every member of the United Nations must join in this mission of liberation," he said.

Bush said Americans were "outraged" over human rights abuses in Myanmar and announced new U.S. sanctions on its military rulers who are facing the biggest anti-government protests in two decades.

He criticized the Zimbabwe government headed by President Robert Mugabe as "tyrannical" and an "assault on its people."

"The United Nations must insist on change in Harare and must insist for the freedom of the people of Zimbabwe," Bush said.

Critics accuse Mugabe of sending Zimbabwe's once-thriving economy to a crisis of widespread food shortages and soaring inflation. Mugabe accuses Western countries of sabotaging the economy as punishment for his seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks.

Alluding to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has been ill, Bush said his rule of the island was "nearing its end" and said free speech and elections should follow a transition in power.

The comment prompted Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque to walk out of the U.N. General Assembly hall in protest. Cuba's U.N. mission called Bush's speech "arrogant."