President George W. Bush pledged on Saturday that the US-led coalition would defeat guerrillas wreaking havoc in Iraq and he defended plans to hand sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on June 30.
Bush also promised support to Iraq after the initial handover of power and through the country's election slated for the end of 2005, including armed forces to maintain peace as well as economic aid.
A year after the coalition toppled Saddam Hussein's regime, US-led troops have launched a multi-city offensive against Sunni and Shi'ite rebels who have inflicted some of the worst casualties seen since Bush said major hostilities were over last May.
"Our coalition's quick reaction forces are finding and engaging the enemy," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Our decisive actions will continue until these enemies of democracy are dealt with."
In the last week at least 51 US and allied soldiers have died in combat in addition to hundreds of Iraqis. Rebels on Friday attacked a fuel convoy and said they kidnapped foreigners to try to force their governments to withdraw troops.
Bush, vacationing at his Texas ranch, will travel to nearby Fort Hood on Sunday for Easter church services where soldiers there are mourning the loss of eight comrades killed in combat last week.
In recent months, Bush's public support has slowly eroded as conditions have deteriorated in Iraq and questions arose about the reasons for going to war. A CNN/Time poll showed his job approval rating at 49 percent, down double-digits in the last few months.
Bush again brushed aside suggestions by some top Republicans and Democrats in Congress that it may be necessary to delay the June 30 handover to an interim government amid the uprising by insurgents.
Guerrillas "want to dictate the course of events in Iraq and to prevent the Iraqi people from having a true voice in their future," Bush said. "The enemies of freedom will fail. Iraqi sovereignty will arrive on June 30."
The United States last year agreed to hand over control in Iraq but its plan to select an interim government through caucuses collapsed, partly because of objections from leading Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is in Iraq for the second time this year to advise on an interim government until elections for a permanent government can be held.
Even so, Bush's own chief diplomat, Secretary of State Colin Powell, admitted on Friday that the interim government may have to accept limits on its power after the transition and that it had been a "tough week" for US-led forces.
Nonetheless, Bush pledged that the United States would continue to provide aid to Iraq after the handover.
"Our coalition forces will remain committed to the security of Iraq," he said. "We will continue helping the Iraqi people reconstruct their economy, undermined by decades of dictatorship and corruption".
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