Bush vows to end addiction to Mideast oil

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush has said America needs to end its addiction to Middle East oil and promised United States engagement around the world in defiance of critics in his State of the Union speech.

Bush's 52-minute speech - interrupted at least 60 times by applause - called for improving technologies in order to reduce oil imports from the Middle East by 75 per cent by 2025.

Bush stood before Washington's power elite in the House of Representatives chamber as he attempted to restore credibility to an Administration blighted by corruption scandals, national spying programmes, the Iraq war and soaring oil prices.

He defended the domestic spying programme and told his critics that "second-guessing is not a strategy" when it came to Iraq.

The President's fifth Union address comes as the increasingly unpopular Republican Party faces an election year with Congress up for grabs.

Petrol prices, a central factor in Bush's fall from grace with Americans, are close to record levels and Exxon just reported record profits of US$10.7 billion ($15.8 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2005.

"America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world," Bush said. "The best way to break this addiction is through technology."

He set a six-year goal for making ethanol a practical fuel, and vowed to fund research into ways to make ethanol from various sources.

The goal, he said, was to "move beyond a petroleum-based economy, and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past".

However, critics have said Bush, a former oil businessman, will never break his links with the industry.

"This Administration is addicted to oil companies, and we won't achieve energy independence until the Administration breaks its addiction," said Democrat Senator Charles Schumer.

Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said it was not credible to hear Bush talk about "making America more secure and honouring our troops, or making America energy independent or making health care more affordable without hearing him explain why he's done just the opposite for the last five years."

Bush vowed the US will remain engaged around the world and will reject the temptation of protectionism and isolationism under his watch.

He said he would never give up in his battle against radical Islam, and that America's enemies and friends should be certain that the US "will not retreat from the world, and we will never surrender to evil".

The comments amounted to a rejection of those Democrats and others who argue US policies in Iraq and in the war on terrorism are doing more harm than good abroad.

Bush argued that Democrats who had called for a phased withdrawal from Iraq "would abandon our Iraqi allies to death and prison".

"However we feel about the decisions and debates of the past, our nation has only one option: We must keep our word, defeat our enemies, and stand behind the American military in its vital mission."

The President said "the world must not permit" Iran to develop a nuclear weapon and said Tehran was being "held hostage" by Islamic clerics.

He laid down what might ultimately be conditions for US relations with Hamas, the Islamic militant group that won in Palestinian elections last week.

"The Palestinian people have voted in elections, now the leaders of Hamas must recognise Israel, disarm, reject terrorism and work for lasting peace." In a sign of concern about non-Muslim as well as Muslim states, Bush cited Myanmar and Zimbabwe - with Iran, North Korea and Syria - as countries where freedoms are lacking and must be instilled.

The rhetoric of the Union address was far removed from previous years, where Iran, North Korea and Iraq were dubbed an "axis of evil" that he vowed to defeat.

- REUTERS