With senior aides bracing nervously for possible criminal indictments in a CIA leak case, Bush began a speech on the war on terrorism by telling his cheering audience: "Thanks for the chance to get out of Washington."

He spoke shortly before the special prosecutor looking into whether a crime was committed in the unmasking of a CIA agent in 2003 was expected to announce that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff would be indicted.

Bush, who did not mention the scandal, touted progress in the global war on terrorism he launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks and said the United States would "deny radical groups the support and sanctuary of outlaw regimes."

"State sponsors like Syria and Iran have a long history of collaboration with terrorists -- and they deserve no patience from the victims of terror," the president told his audience in Norfolk, near the home of the Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval station.

"The United States makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and those who support and harbor them -- because they are equally guilty of murder," he said.

Bush also said the United States and its allies had thwarted more than a dozen shipments of weapons of mass destruction, including equipment for Tehran's ballistic missile program.

White House officials contacted by AFP could not immediately flesh out those claims.

"In the last year, America and our partners in the Proliferation Security Initiative have stopped more than a dozen shipments of suspected weapons technology -- including equipment for Iran's ballistic missile program," said the president.

Facing slumping support for the war in Iraq, Bush warned that "the terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity. And we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war against terror."

"This enemy considers every retreat of the civilized world as an invitation to greater violence. In Iraq, there is no peace without victory -- and so we will keep our nerve and win that victory," said Bush.

At one point, Bush was heckled by a man who stood up and shouted: "Mr President, war is terror." He was booed by the crowd, and security escorted him from the hall.

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