US President George W. Bush vowed on Tuesday that the United States will "eliminate terrorist threats abroad so we do not have to face them here at home." (Xinhua/AFP)

 WASHINGTON, March 8 (Xinhuanet) -- US President George W. Bush vowed on Tuesday that the United States will "eliminate terrorist threats abroad so we do not have to face them here at home."

    In a speech on terrorism at the National Defense University in Washington, Bush said the United States is still a target of terrorists. "We will stay on the offensive against them until the fight is won," he said.

    "Our immediate strategy is to eliminate terrorist threats abroad so we do not have to face them here at home," he noted.

    Bush said that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks "reveal the outlines of a new world." In one way, he said, the attacks were "the culmination of decades of escalating violence," and in another way, the assault "provided a warning of future dangers, ofterror networks aided by outlaw regimes and ideologies that incitethe murder of the innocent, and biological and chemical and nuclear weapons that multiply destructive power."

    Bush said the al Qaeda terror network still has leaders, despite many of its top commanders have been removed, and there are still "governments that sponsor and harbor terrorists" and "regimes seeking weapons of mass destruction."

    "Global terror requires a global response," he said.

    The United States "is more secure today because dozens of othercountries have stepped up to the fight," and its strategy for a long-term peace "is to help change the conditions that give rise to extremism and terror, especially in the broader Middle East," he said. Enditem