WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush and top administration officials made hundreds of false statements about security threat from Iraq to gain public support for the war on Iraq, a study by two nonprofit journalism organizations said Tuesday.

    The study was conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

    The false statements were "part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses," the study found.

    In the two years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush and administration officials stated on 532 occasions at least that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction or was trying to obtain them or had links to al-Qaida.

    The statements were made in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues.

    Bush made 259 false statements, followed by former Secretary of State Collin Powell with 244. On the list were also Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and former White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.

    "The Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003," said the report.

    "It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida," it said.

    White House spokesman Scott Stanzel declined to comment on the study but reiterated that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was a threat.

    "The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world," Stanzel said.