WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, defending his decision to go to war in Iraq, said Friday that a search for weapons of mass destruction made clear that Saddam Hussein was "a danger to the world" even though investigators have failed so far to find any illegal arsenal.

A leading congressional critic, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, said the results of the search to date demonstrated no imminent threat existed "and there was time for more diplomatic effort before we went to war."

Bush made his comments at the White House, Pelosi in the Capitol, the two offering differing interpretations of an interim report submitted by chief U.S. weapons inspector David Kay.

While Kay's initial report said no weapons of mass destruction have been found, Bush said the investigation showed that Saddam was violating U.N. resolutions demanding that he disarm. "The report states that Saddam Hussein's regime had a clandestine network of biological laboratories, a live strain of deadly agent botulinum, sophisticated concealment efforts, and advanced design work on prohibited longer range missiles," the president said.

He said the findings show that Saddam "actively deceived the international community, that Saddam Hussein, was in clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolution 1441 and that Saddam Hussein was a danger to the world." Bush did not reply directly when asked if he was still confident that banned weapons would be found.

The president brushed aside a poll that said public confidence in his ability to deal wisely with an international crisis had dropped sharply. "Sometimes the American people like the decisions I make, sometimes they don't," he said. "But they need to know I'll make tough decisions based upon what I think is right."

Noting that Kay found botulinum poison and work on longer-range missiles, Secretary of State Colin Powell said his report backed up the decision to go to war. "We are more convinced by the Kay report that we did the right thing," Powell told reporters Friday.

"Do you think vials of botulism should constitute a weapons of mass destruction?," Powell asked.

And at the same time, he said, the report verified that Iraq was trying to develop missiles beyond a range permitted by the United Nations.

But Pelosi, D-Calif., who met with Kay in a secure room in the Capitol, emerged to tell reporters that "it was clear to me that there was no imminence of a threat for weapons of mass destruction," as the White House had claimed.

She said the discoveries made so far are evidence of Iraq's aspiration for a weapons program, but added there was a difference between that and achieving the ability to deploy such weapons.

Pelosi, who voted against last year's authorization of the use of force in Iraq, said the classified intelligence she saw at the time did not support the claim of an imminent threat of the banned weapons.

"That was correct," she told reporters after meeting with Kay."

On Thursday, Kay insisted he needed another six to nine months of searching before he would feel confident enough to issue any conclusions about Iraq's weapons program. The Bush administration is asking for $600 million to continue the search, according to congressional officials.

"We have not found at this point actual weapons," Kay said after briefing lawmakers behind closed doors. "It does not mean we've concluded there are no actual weapons."

In a statement to several congressional committees Thursday, he only made one strong finding -- that Saddam was actively developing missiles that exceeded range limits imposed by the United Nations.

"In addition to intent, we have found a large body of continuing activities and equipment that were not declared to the U.N. inspectors when they returned in November of last year," Kay said.

Taken together, Kay's findings do not validate most of Bush's prewar assertions that Saddam had widespread chemical and biological weapons and programs to make more, and was developing a nuclear weapon. Kay did not address U.S. assertions about Saddam's ties to terrorist groups, particularly al-Qaida.

Critics have contended that the U.S. intelligence community made serious errors in its analysis of the threat posed by Iraq or the administration exaggerated what intelligence information it did have to persuade a skeptical world to support an invasion.

"Did we misread it, or did they mislead us, or did they simply get it wrong? Whatever the answer is, it's not a good answer," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"I'm not pleased by what I heard today," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., the committee's chairman, "but we should be willing to adopt a wait-and-see attitude -- and that's the only alternative we really have."

Kay did say, however, that there was evidence that Iraq "focused on maintaining small, covert capabilities that could be activated quickly to surge the production of (biological weapons) agents."

To that end, he described "a clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained equipment ... suitable for continuing (chemical and biological weapon) research." Whether the equipment was actually utilized for that purpose, Kay's report does not say.

Kay said the information on trailers alleged to be mobile biological weapons labs was inconclusive.