The US Federal Reserve Chairman Mr Alan Greenspan will try to reassure Congress today that the sluggish US economy has enough endurance to keep eking out growth.
Financial markets, already nervous over potential military action against Iraq, will be closely tuned to Mr Greenspan's testimony before the House of Representatives Budget Committee for indications of how he views economic prospects.
Mr Greenspan's comments to lawmakers are scheduled to begin a half hour before President George W. Bush is to address the United Nations on Iraq. Mr Bush will press the US case that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is a threat to global stability.
But uneasiness over the Bush team's drive to win other nations' support for the ousting of Saddam and fears that vital Middle East oil supplies could be disrupted by such an action have heightened financial market volatility in recent weeks.
Should a supply interruption force oil prices up from their current range around $30 a barrel, it could be a significant added drag on the world's largest economy at a time when it is only crawling ahead. US gross domestic product grew at only 1.1 per cent annual rate in the second quarter of this year.
At the last meeting of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, Fed policymakers kept interest rates steady but said economic risks were weighted toward weakness.
Although this set the stage for the central bank to add to the 11 interest rate cuts made last year should the situation worsen, recent comments from Fed officials have indicated that policymakers are in no hurry to lower borrowing costs further.