The US President, George W Bush, has defended his decision to send more than 20,000 extra US troops to Iraq to try to help stabilise the situation in Baghdad and Anbar province.
In an interview on public television station, PBS, Mr Bush said the United States had to tackle the violence now or it would spiral out of control.
Mr Bush also criticised the Iraqi government's handling of the execution of former leader Saddam Hussein.
He said that it had been made to look like a revenge killing.
