US: President Bush will make a televised address this evening from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Pacific to tell Americans that major combat in Iraq has officially ended. Mr Bush will not however declare victory nor declare the war to be over.
While the Iraqi regime has been overthrown, skirmishes continue and the United States has yet to achieve some of its main objectives in the war. US forces have not located unconventional weapons - the main stated reason for going to war - or captured former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and his two sons.
The limited declaration means that the United States avoids the requirements of the Geneva Convention, the international code for war and military conflict, that once war is declared over, the victorious army must release prisoners of war and halt operations targeting specific leaders.
After consulting overall military commander Gen Tommy Franks on Tuesday, Mr Bush will say that major combat operations have ended and that the next phase, the reconstruction of Iraq, has begun, White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said.
"This is not a formal legalistic ending of the conflict, no. It is the fact that major combat operations have ended. The United States military forces continue to be fired at, so there are pockets of danger," said Mr Fleischer.
Mr Bush will make the speech from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln as it steams toward San Diego more than a hundred miles off the California coast. The White House has asked the major US networks to carry the speech.
The venue and the qualified nature of the declaration is in marked contrast to the victory speech given by Mr Bush's father on March 6th, 1991, following the Gulf War. Speaking to a joint session of Congress, a week after the conclusion of six weeks of bombing and a four-day land campaign, Mr Bush snr formally declared victory saying: "Aggression is defeated. The war is over."
He went on to say that "our commitment to peace in the Middle East does not end with the liberation of Kuwait", a promise that his son is expected to echo tonight having published the road map to a Palestinian state.
White House officials say that this president is not likely to make the same mistake as his father, who gave the impression he was less concerned about domestic than foreign matters.
In 1991, the then President Bush said: "Our first priority is to get this economy rolling again," but did not follow up with a programme to end the recession. Republicans blame this for their defeat in the presidential election the following year.
Mr Bush snr had an approval rating of 89 per cent on the day he declared victory. His son is not quite so popular - he has 73 per cent approval according to recent polls and is likely to strongly emphasise his tax-cutting plans to stimulate the economy.
The carrier will be so far out to sea that it will beyond the reach of helicopters, so President Bush will travel in a small aircraft which will make a cable-assisted landing on the deck of the carrier.
He will spend the night on the carrier and leave tomorrow before it arrives in San Diego. The Lincoln has been at sea for nine months.