Bush 'will finish job in Iraq'

2004-11-04 20:44

Washington - Claiming a broad popular mandate, President George W Bush vowed on Thursday to battle terrorism, win back allies divided by the war in Iraq, and push ahead at home with controversial tax cuts and pension reform.

"I've earned (political) capital in this election.

"I'm going to spend it on what I told the people I'd spend it on," Bush said in the first news conference of his second four-year term.

With global and United States public opinion polarised about the war in Iraq, Bush vowed to reach out to "those who share our goals" and pointed to the war on terrorism he declared after 9/11, a unifying force.

Common duties

"Whatever our past disagreements, we share a common enemy. And we have common duties: to protect our peoples, to confront disease and hunger and poverty in troubled regions of the world," the president said.

"I'll continue to reach out to our friends and allies, our partners in the European Union and Nato, to promote development and progress, to defeat the terrorists and to encourage freedom and democracy as alternatives to tyranny and terror," he said.

But Bush flatly refused to change course on foreign policy.

He also did not fully endorse British Prime Minister Tony Blair's stated view that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was "the single most pressing" issue in world affairs or signal any shift in US efforts there.

Bush said he had not yet decided on whether to boost US troop levels in Iraq ahead of elections scheduled for January or resolved how much more money to seek, calling media reports of planned increases in soldiers and costs "pure speculation".

Home front

Bush, who has held fewer solo news conferences than any recent president, frequently cut off reporters trying to ask follow-up questions, quipping he could do so "now that I've got the will of the people at my back".

On the home front, the president vowed to press ahead with tax cuts, curbing lawsuits on health-care issues, pursuing education reforms, overhauling the US tax code, and partially privatising the government-run social security pension system.

Asked whether he would be able to rally Democrats behind his agenda, Bush replied: "I believe there will be good will, now that this election is over, to work together."

He said there would be changes to his cabinet, but "I don't know who they will be".

"It's inevitable there will be changes," he said.

- AFP