Bush vows to keep hunting militants

It has been a frustrating year for Mr Bush

By Tom Carver BBC Washington correspondent

In his last weekly radio address of 2002, President George W Bush has promised to hunt down terrorists in any cave or corner of the world.

He also said that in the New Year the United States would disarm the Iraqi regime and free the Iraqi people if Saddam Hussein does not disclose and destroy his arsenal of weapons.

Looking back over the year, Mr Bush said that 2002 had brought great challenges for America and many successes.

He said America had captured top al-Qaeda leaders, destroyed terror training camps and frozen millions of dollars in terrorist assets.

Unfulfilled tasks

However, in fact, 2002 has been a rather frustrating year for the White House.

The greatest success is that 9/11 was not repeated

The greatest plus has been the absence of any repetition of 11 September but the mammoth Department of Homeland Security, designed to make America safer, exists in little more than name only.

Most of the top al-Qaeda leadership, including Osama Bin Laden, remain either at large or unaccounted for.

Mr Bush's top priorities for 2003, he said, were continuing the war on terror and confronting the danger posed by Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction.

The burden now is on Iraq's dictator, he went on, to disclose and destroy his arsenal of weapons.

If he refuses then - for the sake of peace - the United States will lead a coalition to disarm the Iraqi regime and free the Iraqi people.

Mr Bush made no mention of the situation in North Korea.

On the domestic front he said he would try to pass a jobs and growth package through Congress and reform the health care system for elderly people.