President George W. Bush has defended his policies on Iraq during his State of the Union address.
In the 50-minute speech to a joint session of Congress and a national television audience in Washington on Wednesday, the president warned Americans not to think the war on terror is over.
He said that as part of the war, the United States is confronting regimes that harbor and support terrorists, and that could supply terrorists with nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons.
On domestic issues, Mr. Bush explained his optimism about the U.S. economy.
The speech comes as President Bush prepares for what is shaping up to be a tough re-election campaign.
A new poll by the Washington Post and ABC News says that when matched against an unnamed Democratic presidential candidate, Mr. Bush would win, but only by a narrow margin, 48 to 46 percent.
On the question of who is trusted to handle the nation's major problems, the poll gave the president only a one percent margin over Democrats, 45 to 44 percent.