DEAD CERTAIN: Mr Bush speaks forcefully about his confidence in his decisions.

But in an interview with book author Robert Draper in the Oval Office one day last December, he daydreamed about the next phase of his life, when his time will be his own, the New York Times reported.

First, Mr Bush said: 'I will give some speeches, just to replenish the ol' coffers.'

His assets have been estimated at as high as US$21 million (S$32 million). 'I do not know what my dad gets - it is more than US$50,000 to US$75,000 a speech,' he added, later saying: '(Former US president) Clinton's making a lot of money.'

He also plans to 'have a nice place in Dallas' where he will be running what he called 'a fantastic Freedom Institute' promoting democracy around the world.

For now, though, as Mr Bush told Mr Draper in a later session: 'I'm playing for October-November.'

A BRAVE FRONT 'I try not to wear my worries on my sleeve. Self-pity is the worst thing that can happen to a presidency. This is a job where you can have a lot of self-pity.' MR BUSH, on his presidential isolation ... more

That is when he hopes the Iraq troop increase will show enough results to help him achieve the central goal of his remaining time in office: 'To get us in a position where the presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence' and, he said later, 'stay longer'.

In nearly seven years as President, Mr Bush has rarely let his guard down with journalists. But he shared his inner life at the White House over the course of six roughly hour-long interviews with Mr Draper.

Mr Draper agreed to share parts of his transcripts with the New York Times, provided they would not be published until shortly before his book, Dead Certain, is officially released.

The transcripts showed Mr Bush at times musing philosophically and introspectively, and at other times speaking forcefully about his confidence in his own decisions.

Aides said Mr Bush had agreed to speak so freely with Mr Draper only after years of lobbying. Mr Draper, a former writer for Texas Monthly, said Mr Bush began the interview process over lunch last December.

Eventually, the President warmed up considerably - chewing on unlit cigars, jubilantly swatting at flies between making solemn points, propping his feet up on a table or stopping to say: 'I want you to get this' or 'I want this damn book to be right'.

Mr Bush also shared private thoughts that appeared to reflect a level of sorrow and presidential isolation that he strongly implied he took pains to hide.

He told Mr Draper he likes to keep things 'relatively light-hearted' around the White House, adding: 'I can't let my own worries - I try not to wear my worries on my sleeve. Self-pity is the worst thing that can happen to a presidency. This is a job where you can have a lot of self-pity.'

When Mr Draper observed that the President had nobody's 'shoulder to cry on', Mr Bush said: 'Of course I do, I've got God's shoulder to cry on, and I cry a lot.'

He acknowledged a major failing of the early occupation of Iraq when he said of disbanding the Saddam Hussein-era military: 'The policy was to keep the army intact; didn't happen.'

Soon, somebody else will make the decisions on Iraq. And then, Mr Bush said, he would be pursuing his 'freedom agenda' at his institute, modelled on Stanford's Hoover Institution, where young democratic leaders from around the world would study.

'Sixty-two is really young,' he said, 'and yet I'll be through with my presidency.'

NEW YORK TIMES