Washington: In a stunning reversal of his view of the war in Iraq, US President George W Bush has admitted for the first time that the United States is not winning the war and said he plans to expand the size of armed forces so that America can fight a long-term war against terrorism.

"We're not winning, we're not losing," he said in an interview with The Washington Post taking the exact words of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace.

"I think an interesting construct that General [Peter] Pace uses is,"We're not winning, we're not losing," he said.

There's been some very positive developments. And you take a step back and look at progress in Iraq, you say, well, it's amazing constitutional democracy in the heart of the Middle East, which is a remarkable development in itself," Bush said.

He said he has asked the new Defence Secretary Robert Gates to come up with a plan to increase the strength of the Army and the Marine Corps.

"Obviously, I've been thinking about -- and talking to a lot of people about the way forward in Iraq and the way forward in this ideological struggle. I'm inclined to believe that we do need to increase our troops, the Army, the Marines. And I talked about this to [Defense] Secretary [Robert M.] Gates, and he is going to spend some time talking to the folks in the building, come back with a recommendation to me about how to proceed forward on this idea. I want to give him a little time to get his feet on the ground. And so I'll be addressing this after consultations with him," Bush said.