"Yes, it's possible, " Bush told the Spanish leader. "The Egyptians are talking to Saddam Hussein. . . He seems to have indicated he would be open to exile if they would let him take $1bn and all the information he wants on weapons of mass destruction."

But Bush seems to shrug off the idea, saying, "It's also possible he could be assassinated, " and he makes made clear the US would in any case give "no guarantee" for Hussein. "He's a thief, a terrorist and a war criminal. Compared to Saddam, Milosevic would be a Mother Teresa."

The conversation, recorded by Spain's ambassador to the US, Javier Ruperez, and published this week in El Pais, offers a unique insight into Bush's brusque interaction with one of the few foreign leaders he trusted. Here was a leader already on the march towards war, expressing impatience and anger at those that disagreed with him.

Bush does admit that averting war would be "the best solution for us" and "would also save us $50bn", greatly underestimating the cost to the US treasury of nearly five years of warfare. But he also talks of how he planned to exact revenge on countries that did not back the US in its drive to war.

"We have to get rid of Saddam. There are two weeks left. In two weeks we'll be ready militarily, " Bush told Aznar.

It was February 2003 at Bush's Crawford Texas ranch, less than a month before the invasion. Almost 150,000 US troops and their British allies were sitting in the Kuwaiti desert. The troops were well within range of any weapons of mass destruction, military analysts have pointed out.

US administration officials had already prepared public opinion for war by raising fears of Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme and his ability to create "mushroom clouds" But the transcript reveals the two leaders were more concerned about getting a fig leaf of international approval for the war than any imminent threat from Saddam.

The transcript revolves around Washington's frustrations at failing to get UN Security Council approval for war . . . the now-famous second resolution.

At the time, both Tony Blair and Bush were officially open to a diplomatic resolution of the Iraq crisis . . . including a negotiated exile of Saddam . . . but the Spanish ambassador's notes reveal peace was never really an option.