US President George W. Bush on Thursday defended his policy on Iraq again, calling the country a "central front" to fight terrorism and vowing "no retreat."

"Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response. We will never back down, never give in, and never accept anything less than complete victory," he said at a ceremony held by the National Endowment for Democracy to commemorate the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The speech is in a series of Bush's recent moves to step up defense of his policy on Iraq in the wake of waning domestic support for the war and next week's constitutional referendum in Iraq, which is seen as a crucial test for his Iraq policy.

The US president claimed that terrorists have made Iraq the "central front," because they believe that controlling one country will enable them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical empire that "spans from Spain to Indonesia."

"The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity, and we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war on terror," said Bush.

He noted that his administration will not "rest until the war on terror is won."

Bush also rejected growing criticism that US invasion of Iraq has fanned radicalism and terrorism.

To those critics, he said he will "remind them that we were not in Iraq on Sept. 11, 2001, and al-Qaida attacked us anyway."

Mentioning the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, he urged Americans to support his policy in order to "confront this mortal danger to all humanity."

Bush added his government has foiled three terrorist strikes planned by al-Qaida on the US soil and seven others elsewhere since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Source: Xinhua