President Bush is scheduled to talk about the Iraq war today at the Religious Broadcasters' convention in Nashville.

White House press secretary Dana Perino was asked yesterday why the president was planning to address this audience about something that seems unconnected to them.

"The topic was ours to choose, but the President — one of the things he'll be talking about is, as I said, the God-given right to freedom, that is given to everybody. And the President will talk about the importance of the missions that we have under way in Afghanistan and Iraq," Mrs Perino said.

"But in addition to that, he will provide an update. And as you know, we're getting closer to the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, we're getting closer to the Petraeus-Crocker report, which will come April 8th and 9th on Capitol Hill. And then we have the NATO summit, which is very important in regards to the issues in front of NATO right now, including expansion," she said.

— Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times