US President George W. Bush on Sunday called the Jan. 30 Iraqi election "a resounding success".

Hours after the election was closed, Bush praised in a televised statement the bravery of Iraqis who turned out to vote despite continuing violence and intimidation.

The Iraqi elections demonstrated "the voice of freedom from thecenter of the Middle East," Bush said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier that the Iraq election is "going better than expected".

"Every indication is that the election in Iraq is going better than expected," Rice said in an interview by ABC's "This Week" program about one hour before the Iraqi poll closed.

Rice conceded that "It is not a perfect election," but she called it a positive development no one had foreseen three years ago when Saddam Hussein was still the dictator of Iraq.

The Bush administration is convinced that most Iraqis support the election which has been claimed to be the first free election in the Arab country in a half-century.

Security was tight during the one-day election. About 300,000 Iraqi and American troops were on the streets and on standby to protect the election. Polling officially closed across Iraq at 5 p.m (1400 GMT) on Sunday.

Despite the violence, election officials said the turnout had been above expectations. They originally put it at 72 percent but later backtracked, saying possibly 8 million out of Iraq's 13 million registered voters had voted, which would be a little over 60 percent of registered voters.

Election commission spokesman Farid Ayar acknowledged, however,that "the numbers are only guessing".

The government had set a voter turnout target of at least 50 percent as a barometer of success.