Bush says Iraq elections on track

CAMP PENDLETON, California, Dec 7 (AFP) - President George W. Bush said Tuesday that Iraqi elections scheduled for late next month "will proceed as planned," with some 150,000 US troops there to bolster security.
"As the elections approach we can expect further violence from the terrorists," Bush said in a speech to thousands of cheering US Marines at this sprawling military base.
"The terrorists will do all they can to delay and disrupt free elections in Iraq, and they will fail," the president said. "Free elections will proceed as planned."
Amid deadly chaos in Iraq, Bush said the number of US forces there would increase by 12,000 to about 150,000 ahead of the elections, and stressed the importance of training Iraqi security forces to shoulder some of the burden.
But he declined to say when US forces would leave Iraq, where about 1,000 have been killed in combat since the March 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

12/07/2004 18:08 GMT - AFP