President George W. Bush was to give a key speech on Tuesday in a bid to convince an increasingly sceptical American public to support him over the presence of US troops in Iraq.
The US leader was to go to the huge Fort Bragg army base in North Carolina to give the speech, which will mark the first anniversary of the transfer of civilian authority from the US to an Iraqi government.
He was to also meet privately with the parents of some of the more than 1,700 US military who have died in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March, 2003.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Monday that "significant progress" had been made since the handover, most notably the elections last January and the installation of a transitional government under Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who last week met with Bush at the White House.
Nevertheless, the US public is increasingly questioning the need to keep 135,000 US troops in Iraq.
According to survey published last week, 59 percent of Americans want a partial or total pullout of US forces from Iraq, where daily insurgent attacks are taking a mounting toll.
The Bush administration has rejected calls from US lawmakers, including from the president's Republican Party, to set a firm timetable on the withdrawal of US troops.
US Vice President Dick Cheney recently said that the insurgency is currently in its "last throes" but US military officials have been less sanguine.
And Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told US television on Sunday that the insurgency could go on for "years."
"Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years," he told Fox television.
Having used Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction to justify the war, Bush has now had to change tack following the failure to find them.
Bush now justifies the US presence in Iraq as part of the US "war on terror" and efforts to spread democracy in the Middle East.
Another ABC News/Washington Post poll found that for the first time most Americans -- 57 percent -- believe the Bush administration "intentionally misled" the public in going to war in Iraq.
Looking ahead to the speech, the White House spokesman said: "I think one thing the president will do is talk about the nature of the enemy that we face in Iraq. These are terrorists that have no regard for human life. They are a determined and ruthless enemy that has made Iraq a central front in the war on terrorism."
The US is now putting greater emphasis on Iraqi forces beating the insurgents as it seeks an exit strategy.
"Foreign troops are not going to beat the insurgency. It's going to be the Iraqi people that are going to beat the insurgency and Iraqi security forces," Rumsfeld told NBC television on Sunday.
He also admitted that US representatives had met representatives from Iraqi insurgent groups in recent months, while minimising their importance.
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