In an apparent attempt to divert attention from the war in Iraq ahead of next year's US election, President George W. Bush has rated the overhaul of the Medicare health program as his top achievement of 2003.
In a radio address devoted to the "milestones" of 2003, Bush gave top billing to the passage of a Medicare bill that adds a prescription drug benefit to the national health program for the elderly and disabled.
He then cited his tax cuts and credited them for a pickup in the US economy, which suffered a recession in 2001 and grew sluggishly in its wake.
Only toward the end of four-minute radio address did Bush mention the war in Iraq.
In discussing the Iraq conflict, Bush cited it as an accomplishment in his administration's "war on terror."
Bush said his administration "took urgent action on every front in the war on terror," and he mentioned the creation of the new Department of Homeland Security along with the Iraq war and the reconstruction of Afghanistan as part of that effort.
Democrats have increasingly attacked Bush on the issue of the war in Iraq , which he launched in March 2003.