US President George W Bush has delivered his annual State of the Union address to a joint session of the United States Congress on Capitol Hill.
The televised speech is being seen as Mr Bush's opening salvo in his campaign to be re-elected in November.
The speech began and ended with words of encouragment for American troops serving overseas in the war on terror.
The President warned that the absence of a new terrorist attack on American soil did not mean the threat had ended. Terrorists, he said, were still plotting against America.
On the war in Iraq, Mr Bush said Iraqis were now free, and their once-powerful ruler was in a prison cell. Referring to the UN and those countries who did not support the war, he said America would never seek a permission slip to defend itself.
During the speech, President Bush spoke on moral issues but commentators say his often conservative rhetoric seemed milder and aimed at the middle ground.
However, he said the US must defend the institution of heterosexual marriage, possibly by constitutional amendment, and was critical of judges who appear to be moving towards granting similar status to same-sex unions. America's health care, he said, should not be nationalised, as some were suggesting, but kept private.
