U.S. President George Bush has asked the United Nations General Assembly for help in reconstructing Iraq, saying it's time to set aside past differences over the U.S.-led war.

Bush said he recognized that "some of the sovereign nations of this assembly disagreed with our actions" when the U.S. led an invasion of Iraq six months ago. But he said the war was justified by what has been learned about the cruelty of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"Across the Middle East, people are safer," he said. "Across the world, nations are more secure.''

"So let us move forward," he said.

As for where to go from here, Bush said he resists the transfer of Iraqi sovereignty to the people of the country, as France and Germany have requested. Instead, he prefers a process that was "reached by orderly democratic means."

"This process must unfold according to the needs of Iraqis -- neither hurried nor delayed by the wishes of other parties," Bush said, in a subtle jab at France and other nations demanding an immediate end to the U.S. occupation.

He said the world body should assist in preparing a constitution for Iraq, helping to train civil servants and conducting free and fair elections, adding: "Every young democracy needs the help of friends.''

It was Bush's first speech to the 191-member General Assembly since telling the United Nations it risked becoming irrelevant if it did not take a stand against Iraq, one year ago.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan preceded Bush with an address that included an unusually blunt swipe at the U.S., rebuking them for the unilateral military action in Iraq without UN authority.

Without mentioning the United States by name, Annan warned that pre-emptive strikes "could set precedents that result in a proliferation of the unilateral and lawless use of force, with or without credible justification."

He received hearty applause as he said that sidestepping the organization calls into question the entire structure of collective action forged when the United Nations was created after the Second World War.

But he conceded that the Security Council might need to consider rewriting the rule book for the use of force in light of the growing number of terrorism incidents.

"Its members may need to begin a discussion on the criteria for an early authorization of coercive measures to address certain types of threats -- for instance, terrorist groups armed with weapons of mass destruction," Annan said.

Washington is working on a new UN resolution aimed at attracting wider support for post-war reconstruction and easing the strain on U.S. troops. France and Germany, though, want the U.S. to speed up its timetable for handing over control of Iraq to an elected government.

French President Jacques Chirac, who spoke after Bush, said that no country should be able to use force on its own, without the approval of the Security Council. Then, in a thinly veiled attack on the U.S. action in Iraq, said the war had put the UN through one of the most severe crises in its history.

"The war, launched without the authorization of the Security Council, shook the multilateral system," he said. "The United Nations has just been through one of the most grave crises in its history."

He added that he wants the new UN resolution to turn over sovereignty to an Iraqi governing council, then transfer power gradually over six to nine months.

International lawyer Anne Baefsky said the French are playing a very dangerous game. "They want to have it both ways," she told CTV's Canada AM.

"They started off their speech saying that the President undermined multilateralism, and yet they are the ones standing in the way from a resolution on Iraq at the Security Council."

On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Jean Chretien addressed the UN. He used his time at the podium to push the world body to do whatever it takes to make sure humanitarian catastrophes like the genocide in Rwanda never happen again.

On Monday, Chretien addressed an anti-terrorism conference in New York, where he chided the United States' unilateral approach in the fight against terrorism, saying it should be a group effort.

"No one country, no matter how powerful, has either the wisdom or the ability to defeat terrorism on its own," Chretien said.

"We must work together to devise a lasting and effective response that respects international law," he said.