US President George W Bush made a rare televised address to update Americans on the situation in Iraq.

Coalition forces have encountered serious violence in some areas of Iraq.

Our military commanders report that this violence is being instigated by three groups. Some remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime, along with Islamic militants, have attacked coalition forces in the city of Falluja.

Terrorists from other countries have infiltrated Iraq to incite and organise attacks. In the south of Iraq, coalition forces face riots and attacks that are being incited by a radical cleric named al-Sadr...

Although these instigations of violence come from different factions, they share common goals. They want to run us out of Iraq and destroy the democratic hopes of the Iraqi people.

The violence we have seen is a power grab by these extreme and ruthless elements. It's not a civil war. It's not a popular uprising. Most of Iraq is relatively stabile. Most Iraqis by far reject violence and oppose dictatorship...

Iraq will either be a peaceful democratic country or it will again be a source of violence, a haven for terrorists and a threat to America and to the world. By helping secure a free Iraq, Americans serving in that country are protecting their fellow citizens...

Troops promise

As I've said to those who have lost loved ones, we will finish the work of the fallen.

America's armed forces are performing brilliantly with all the skill and honour we expect of them.

We're constantly reviewing their needs. Troop strength now and in the future is determined by the situation on the ground. If additional forces are needed, I will send them. If additional resources are needed, we will provide them...

Sovereignty demands

One central commitment of that mission is the transfer of sovereignty back to the Iraqi people. We have set a deadline of June 30. It is important that we meet that deadline.

As a proud and independent people, Iraqis do not support an indefinite occupation, and neither does America. We're not an imperial power, as nations such as Japan and Germany can attest. We're a liberating power, as nations in Europe and Asia can attest, as well. America's objective in Iraq is limited and it is firm.

We seek an independent, free and secure Iraq.

Were the coalition to step back from the June 30 pledge, many Iraqis would question our intentions and feel their hopes betrayed, and those in Iraqi who trade in hatred and conspiracy theories would find a larger audience and gain the stronger hand.

We will not step back from our pledge. On June 30, Iraqi sovereignty will be placed in Iraqi hands. Sovereignty involves more than a date and a ceremony. It requires Iraqis to assume responsibility for their own future...

Many Iraqi leaders are showing greater personal courage, and their example will bring out the same quality in others. The transition to sovereignty also requires an atmosphere of security, and our coalition is working to provide that security. We will continue taking the greatest care to prevent harm to innocent civilians, yet we will not permit the spread of chaos and violence.

I have directed our military commanders to make every preparation to use decisive force if necessary to maintain order and to protect our troops...

Success essential

The success of free government in Iraq is vital for many reasons. A free Iraq is vital because 25 million Iraqis have as much right to live in freedom as we do. A free Iraq will stand as an example to reformers across the Middle East.

A free Iraq will show that America is on the side of Muslims who wish to live in peace, as we've already shown in Kuwait and Kosovo, Bosnia and Afghanistan.

A free Iraq will confirm to a watching world that America's word, once given, can be relied upon even in the toughest times.

Above all, the defeat of violence and terror in Iraq is vital to the defeat of violence and terror elsewhere, and vital, therefore, to the safety of the American people. Now is the time and Iraq is the place in which the enemies of the civilized world are testing the will of the civilised world.

We must not waver. The violence we are seeing in Iraq is familiar. The terrorist who takes hostages or plants a roadside bomb near Baghdad is serving the same ideology of murder that kills innocent people on trains in Madrid, and murders children on buses in Jerusalem, and blows up a nightclub in Bali, and cuts the throat of a young reporter for being a Jew.

We've seen the same ideology of murder in the killing of 241 marines in Beirut, the first attack on the World Trade Center, and the destruction of two embassies in Africa; in the attack on the USS Cole, and in the merciless horror inflicted upon thousands of innocent men and women and children on September 11, 2001.

None of these acts is the work of a religion. All are the work of a fanatical political ideology.

The servants of this ideology seek tyranny in the Middle East and beyond. They seek to oppress and persecute women. They seek the death of Jews and Christians, and every Muslim who desires peace over theocratic terror.

They seek to intimidate America into panic and retreat, and to set free nations against each other.

And they seek weapons of mass destruction to blackmail and murder on a massive scale.

Over the last several decades, we've seen that any concession or retreat on our part will only embolden this enemy and invite more bloodshed. And the enemy has seen over the last 31 months that we will no longer live in denial or seek to appease them...

A desperate enemy is also a dangerous enemy, and our work may become more difficult before it is finished...

Safer future

No-one can predict all the hazards that lie ahead or the costs they will bring. Yet in this conflict, there is no safe alternative to resolute action.

The consequences of failure in Iraq would be unthinkable. Every friend of America in Iraq would be betrayed to prison and murder as a new tyranny arose. Every enemy of America in the world would celebrate, proclaiming our weakness and decadence and using that victory to recruit a new generation of killers.

We will succeed in Iraq. We're carrying out a decision that has already been made and will not change. Iraq will be a free, independent country and America and the Middle East will be safer because of it.

Our coalition has the means and the will to prevail. We serve the cause of liberty and that is always and everywhere a cause worth serving.