Washington, March 19 (AP): Five years after launching the invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush strongly signalled today that he would not order US troops withdrawal beyond those already planned because he refused to “jeopardise the hard-fought gains” of the past year

As anti-war activists demonstrated around downtown Washington and around the country, the President spoke at the defence department to mark the anniversary of a war that has cost nearly 4,000 US lives and roughly $500 billion.

The President’s address was part of a series of events the White House planned around the anniversary and next month’s report from the top US figures in Iraq, General David Petraeus and ambassador Ryan Crocker. That report will be the basis for Bush’s first troop-level decision in seven months.

“The battle in Iraq has been longer and harder and more costly than we anticipated,” Bush said.

But, he added, before an audience of Pentagon brass, soldiers and diplomats: “The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just. And with your courage, the battle in Iraq will end in victory.”

Democrats took issue with Bush’s stay-the-course suggestion.

“With the war in Iraq entering its sixth year, Americans are rightly concerned about how much longer our nation must continue to sacrifice our security for the sake of an Iraqi government that is unwilling or unable to secure its own future,” the leader of the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said.

“Democrats will continue to push for an end to the war in Iraq and increased oversight of that war.”

Bush repeatedly and directly linked the fight there to the global battle against the al Qaida terror network.

He also made some of his most expansive claims of success. Bush said the increase of 30,000 troops that he ordered to Iraq last year has turned “the situation in Iraq around.”