'The work ahead in Iraq is hard and there will be more difficult moments,' Bush said in a speech at George Washington University in the US capital.
Bush blamed the February 22 bombing of a revered Shiite Mosque in Samarra on terrorists bent on provoking civil war, but credited Iraqi leaders and government troops for preventing a full blown conflict.
'This is not the last time they will be called to stand together in the face of an outrageous terrorist attack,' Bush said.
'We can expect the enemy will try again,' he said in a speech just days before the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq that weeks later toppled Saddam Hussein's government.
The attack on the Golden Mosque prompted reprisals by armed Shiite militants on minority Sunni mosques and led to suggestions that Iraq was falling into a civil war.
The US public backed Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq, but a resilient insurgency, mounting US casualties, and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction - the White House's chief reason for the invasion - has contributed to a significant drop in support.
More than 2,000 US soldiers have died since the March 20, 2003 invasion began, and the conflict has cost US taxpayers more than 200 billion dollars.
Iraq along with domestic problems, such as the response to Hurricane Katrina and allegations of wrong doing in his administration, have helped push Bush's job approval ratings to the lowest of his presidency - in the 30th percentile, lower than most second term presidents at this stage.
Bush was to deliver several speeches this week on the conflict in Iraq.
Bush has steadfastly refused to set a timeframe for an American pullout, instead hinging any pullout to the build up of Iraqi security forces capable of fending off the insurgency.
There are about 132,000 American soldiers in Iraq, 6,000 lower than what had been the baseline figure for most of the conflict.
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