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Washington: Claiming that the United States was making steady progress in Iraq, President George W Bush on October 4, said Washington would keep its promise to fully return government to Iraqi people as soon as possible.

Warning that transition to self-government is a "complicated process, because it takes time to build trust and hope after decades of oppression and fear," he said "yet we are making steady progress and we will keep our promise to fully return Iraq's government to Iraq people as soon as possible," he said in his weekly radio address.

Referring to the progress made in training the new Iraqi police and armed forces, Bush claimed men and women of the coalition know their mission.

"They know," he said, "that we are fighting terrorists in Iraq so that we will not have to face them and fight them in the streets of our own cities.

"Our forces know that a secure and sovereign Iraq will be a setback for terrorists, and an inspiration to all who dream of freedom in the Middle East. And the world can be certain, this essential mission in the war on terror will be completed."

Bush, who has been confronting mounting opposition to the war in Iraq, claimed that progress had been made in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's regime was brought down.

"This weekend in Iraq, 750 Iraqi citizens completed their military training and became the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army. For decades, Iraq's Army served the interests of a dictator.

"Today a new Army is serving the Iraqi people. And less than a year from now, Iraq will have a 40,000 member military force, trained and dedicated to protecting their fellow citizens."

Bush said "Iraq now has a Civil Defence Corps of newly 2,500, a Border Guard Force of 4,700 and a Facility Protection Service of over 12,000."

He said "for three decades, the police in Iraq were the feared enforcers of a dictatorship. Now Iraq's new police are enforcing the just laws of an emerging democracy" and helping in raids which this week led to the arrest of "more than 50 suspected criminals and terrorists."

"We are on the offensive against the desperate holdouts and Saddam loyalists who oppose progress in Iraq. The free nation we are helping to build will be free of them," he added.

PTI