Bush Delivers State of the Union

W A S H I N G T O N, Jan. 30 -- In his first State of the Union, President Bush said the war on terror is not over, and named North Korea, Iran and Iraq as members of an "axis of evil."

Bush told a joint session of Congress and a national television audience Tuesday night that fighting terror internationally is only part of the challenge. Ensuring domestic security and battling the recession are also priorities, Bush said.

But it was the war that provoked the strongest comments. "What we have found in Afghanistan confirms that — far from ending there — our war against terror is only beginning," Bush said, delivering a direct warning to nations that threaten the security of the United States.

"I will not wait on events while dangers gather," Bush said. "I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."

Bush said terror training camps still exist in at least a dozen countries. He said documents seized from terrorist facilities in Afghanistan included diagrams of nuclear power plants and water facilities as well as surveillance information on U.S. cities and landmarks.

Singling out the capital cities of the "axis of evil" — Pyongyang, Tehran and Baghdad — Bush said "We know their true nature" despite their relative silence since Sept. 11.

He said North Korea was developing weapons of mass destruction while starving its people, that Iran was exporting terror while repressing freedom at home and Iraq "continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror," and has pursued chemical and biological weapons.

"Steadfast in our purpose, we now press on. We have known freedom'sprice. We have shown freedom's power. And in this great conflict, my fellowAmericans, we will see freedom's victory," Bush said.

In the Democratic response, House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt ofMissouri thanked the military, and told the nation's enemies "We're going to hunt you down and make you pay."