WASHINGTON – As the visit of the deputy prime minister of Iraq, Ahmad Chalabi, fueled hostility from the American anti-war movement, Democratic lawmakers, and the press yesterday over allegations that the Iraqi lured the Bush administration into war in 2003, Mr. Chalabi said he and his colleagues preferred nurturing his country’s nascent democracy to dwelling on weapons of mass destruction.

“We are not now engaged in this kind of debate in Iraq,” Mr. Chalabi said during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-democracy think tank. “We are engaged with the business of improving the quality of life for the people of Iraq and making the country secure from terrorism.”

During the remarks – his first public engagement on his first visit to America in almost two years – Mr. Chalabi also presented to an American audience several leading candidates running in December’s elections on his independent Iraqi National Congress ticket.

The visit – which includes meetings with Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, Treasury Secretary Snow, and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld – has been interpreted as a signal to Iraqi voters that Mr. Chalabi and his associates have not been shut out by the Bush administration.

Some observers of Iraqi politics have also said that Mr. Chalabi’s visit to Iran this weekend in advance of the American trip, which included a meeting with President Ahmadinejad, and his stop in Turkey afterward are meant to communicate that Mr. Chalabi is an international statesman with wide-ranging appeal. The meetings with the Iranian and American presidents also demonstrate to voters that Mr. Chalabi is not beholden to either, observers have said.

The American trip may also signal that Iraq’s prime minister, Iyad Allawi, does not enjoy a monopoly on American support after the Bush administration turned on Mr. Chalabi in 2004 following his alleged statement that he and his colleagues were “heroes in error” on the matter of WMD intelligence. Mr. Chalabi yesterday denied ever having made the comment.

The deputy prime minister maintained that his relationship with the Bush administration is “friendly” and likened himself to the first West German chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, who Mr. Chalabi said was at one point arrested by British forces but went on to become a strong ally of the West in its struggle against communism.

“Leadership in politics is not about resentment,” Mr. Chalabi said. “One must look to the future.”

Mr. Chalabi yesterday declined to state whether he would seek the Iraqi prime ministry after December’s elections, saying: “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

In the meantime, the deputy prime minister praised the strides Iraq has made toward democracy, saying the country is moving “beyond identity politics. “The success of the new Iraqi constitution, Mr. Chalabi said, would depend on how the government interpreted it, adding: “What Iraq needs is leadership.” He extolled Shia cleric Ali al-Sistani for being “instrumental” in promoting Iraqi democracy to a wide range of voters.

Mr. Chalabi touted inclusiveness as the hallmark of his political ticket, which is not affiliated with any religious party. “We chose to make a list to distinguish ourselves from the Islamic parties,” Mr. Chalabi said, adding that many Iraqis “are not believers in Islamic government, and they need this voice to represent them.” He also pledged to Iraq’s Sunni minority: “We will not exclude them.”

Mr. Chalabi stressed the importance of the Iraqi economy in making the country secure, and of providing jobs for young citizens to stave off the despair that leads to terrorism. Mr. Chalabi, who oversees Iraq’s energy resources, highlighted the potential for its oil reserves, which he said are the greatest in the world and have been underdeveloped owing to decades of Saddam Hussein’s socialist policies.

Mr. Chalabi said Iraq could produce up to 3 million barrels of oil a day. During a meeting with Ms. Rice yesterday, Mr. Chalabi said, the secretary of state had expressed support for providing the assistance needed to fully utilize Iraq’s oil reserves. The State Department offered little information about the gathering, but spokesman Adam Ereli said that it had been “a good meeting” and that the discussion had been “wide ranging.”

After his prepared remarks, Mr. Chalabi faced a barrage of hostile questions about the WMD intelligence and allegations that he compromised American security by funneling state secrets to Iran. Some reporters insistently pressed Mr. Chalabi to apologize for alleged, unproved misdeeds and demanded to know the status of an FBI probe into his activities.

Mr. Chalabi was also asked about his willingness to testify before Congress, as reporters cited a call issued yesterday by Senator Durbin, a Democrat of Illinois, and Rep. George Miller, a Democrat of California, that Mr. Chalabi be subpoenaed during his visit to America. Mr. Durbin and Senators Kennedy and Leahy, Democrats of Massachusetts and Vermont, also demanded of Attorney General Gonzalez yesterday that Mr. Chalabi be interrogated by the FBI during his visit.

Mr. Chalabi dismissed the allegations, reminding reporters that he had volunteered to appear before Congress to answer any questions about pre-war intelligence. He said he had “no knowledge” of being the subject of an FBI probe, and said he had never passed American secrets to Iran. “Do not chase headlines,” Mr. Chalabi said.

Mr. Chalabi also addressed Iraq’s relationship with its neighbors. He said he was confident Iraqi democracy could survive despite bordering the Assad dictatorship. He also said any Iranian attempts to influence Iraqi politics would be “doomed to failure,” and said it was important for Iraq to have “a transparent, friendly relationship with Iran, and I believe this position will not find opposition in the United States government.”

The invitation issued to Mr. Chalabi by the White House had set the antiwar movement seething, and led to calls on left-leaning Web logs for a citizens’ arrest of Mr. Chalabi outside AEI. Demonstrations yesterday were anemic and there were no arrests, according to a police officer on the scene.