http://192.168.2.6/english/20061221VOA.mp3

This is VOA world news now, live coverage of a news conference by president Bush at the white house.

Hello, I am K,come to you from Washington. The president is planning to hold his end of the year news conference in just M. There he will be focusing on the war in Iraq and the US economy. White House officials say Mr Bush will make an opening statement on the war in Iraq and he's been analyzing options for the war. Mr Bush is expected to announce a new strategy coming in January. The president is also likely to disucss his desicion to expand the overall size of the US military. Mr Bush said the military needs to deal with a long term fight against terrorism while acknowledging that the US is not winning the war in Iraq. He told the Washington post that he believes the US is not winning and is not losing the war. The white house says Mr Bush will also stress the importance of working with the democratic party which won control of both houses of congress in the November's elections. The US economy will also be a topic of discussion in this news conference. The president will talk about the need to keep the economy strong. On the topic of Iraq, Mr Bush, also US defense secretary Robert Gates is in Bagdad today on an announce visit. He is getting his first time to look at the situation in Iraq just two days after taking office. He is talking with Iraqi officials and US military commanders. Other news on Iraq, the Los Angeles time is reporting today that US army general John /, the commander of US forces in middle east has submited plans to retire in March, and now the president.

This week I went to the Pentagon for the swearing in our nation's new secretary of defense Robert Gates. Secretary Gates is going to bring a fresh respective to the Pentagon and America's force unit, that he has agreed to serve our country once again. Looking forward to working with him. Secretary Gates is going to be an important voice in the Iraqi strategy review that is underway. As you know, I had been consulting closely with our commanders and joint chief staff on the strategy in Iraq and on the broader war on terror and our top priorities during this war is to ensure that our many women wearing the uniform have everything they need to do their jobs. This war on terror is the calling of a new generation, is the calling of our generation. Success is essential to secure a future and peace for children and grandchildren, and securing this peace future will require a sustained commitment from the American people and our military. We have an obligation to ensure our military is capable of sustaining this war over the long haul and performing the many tasks that we ask them. I (am) can believe it we need to increase in the permanent size of both the United States army and the United States marines. Our secretary Gates is determing how such an increase could take place and report back to me as quickly as possible, and our many members of congress did the desicions and I appreciate their input and we will develope a specific of proposals over the coming weeks and will allow this to views will work embassy that is becoming a reality. 2006 was a difficult year for our troops and Iraqi people. We begin the year with optimism after watching nearly 12 main Iraqis go the polls both for a unity government and free future. The enemies have deliberately responded fiercely to this advance freedom. They carried out a deliberate strategy to form sectarian violence between Sunis and Shiah and over the course the year they had a success. Their sucess put our efforts to help the Iraqis rebuild a country is setback reconciliation and kept Iraqi unity government and our coalition from establishing security and stablity throughout the country. We have an additional year clear about the challenges in Iraq and equally clear about our purpose, our goal remains a free and democratic Iraqi government /, sustain itself and defend itself and is an ally in this war on terror. We can't make predictions about what 2007 will look like in Iraq except that we can require difficult choices and additional sacrifices because enemy is martialis and violent.