WASHINGTON – Undeterred by a battered public image and a recession that might dampen fundraising for his library, President George W. Bush said Thursday that he hasn't considered scaling back the multimillion-dollar project at SMU.

"I don't think popularity ratings have anything to do with whether people want to support a good idea," he said.

Bush also repeated his opposition to identifying all donors to his library. He said he was aware the U.S. House approved a measure Wednesday requiring presidential foundations to disclose the names of such supporters. That bill would apply only to Barack Obama and future presidents.

"A lot of donors give to organizations, whether it be this library or anything else, and don't want their names out," he said. "They feel comfortable being anonymous in their giving. ... I want to honor the desires of the donors."

Bush declined to say directly whether he would accept foreign donations, though all other recent presidents have taken such money for their libraries.

"Once you're an ex-president, I can't imagine what kind of policies you would influence that would pay somebody off for a gift," he said. "Obviously, if you are president you want to make sure you're above suspicion, and that's the way we've conducted ourselves and that's the way it should be."

Library backers so far have raised just under $3 million, with a goal of more than $300 million for the library, museum and research center. Bush said he's not concerned about the pace of fund-raising, noting that he hasn't yet made any public appeals.

The remarks were his most extensive yet on the library, with Bush and wife Laura being far more involved in its planning and strategy than previously known. Among the new details:

•A landscape architect, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, has been chosen for the project. The firm also designed a pedestrian area on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House when it was closed to motorists.

•Laura Bush, who heads the library's design committee, invited the directors of other presidential libraries to Camp David last summer for advice.

•The complex, expected to be built by 2013, will be designed to attract students "to come hang around," Laura Bush said, and will include a cafe, temporary exhibits and an auditorium.

•President Bush said he'll begin work almost immediately in a Preston Center suite.

Some historians have raised concerns about the openness of the library, which will house presidential documents managed by the National Archives.

Bush defended his post- 9/11 order letting presidents and other chief executives obscure some of their records after leaving office. The House approved a bill Wednesday that would nullify that order.

He said he enacted the order to exert executive privilege on behalf of President Bill Clinton's papers and said it was not a partisan issue but to protect classified documents. Laura Bush indicated the museum shouldn't be afraid to focus on the whole presidency. Recalling how Nancy Reagan was criticized as a clothing showhorse, Laura Bush said the director of Ronald Reagan's library told her Mrs. Reagan's clothes are the most popular exhibit.

"More people came to see her clothes than have come for anything else at the Reagan library," she said.