The president expanded on the Syrian facility destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in September in a news conference also consumed by fears of economic recession and his lingering hopes for a deal on a Palestinian state.

Bush said he did not initially tell Congress about the facility, which US officials say could have produced two nuclear bombs within a year of being completed, as he did not want to inflame regional tensions.

But national security officials briefed lawmakers last week, presenting intelligence they said showed Syria had been building a secret nuclear reactor for military ends with North Korean help -- an accusation Damascus denies.

Bush said the briefing was intended to advance "certain policy objectives."

"One would be to the North Koreans, to make it abundantly clear that we know more about them than they think," Bush said in the White House Rose Garden.

"Then we have an interest in sending a message to Iran and the world, for that matter, about just how destabilizing nuclear proliferation would be in the Middle East."

CIA Director Michael Hayden said on Monday that the plant could have been used to produce nuclear bombs.

"In the course of a year after they got full up they would have produced enough plutonium for one or two weapons," Hayden told reporters after a speech at Georgetown University.

The revelations over the alleged cooperation between Syria and North Korea, sparked concerns that six-nation talks on dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear program could be thrown off course.

Bush also used the news conference to lay the groundwork for his trip to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt next month, saying he hoped to still see a deal establishing a Palestinian state before he leaves office in January.

He said he was "still hopeful we will get an agreement by the end of my presidency" but hit out at the Islamist movement Hamas which he blamed for destabilizing the situation.

He said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was shortly heading back to the region, adding he had spoken with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"The attitude is good, people do understand the importance of getting a state defined."

Bush also accused Hamas of trying to scupper attempts to forge an elusive deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

"They're the ones whose objective is the destruction of Israel," Bush said.

Two days after Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped a brazen Taliban attack on his a big annual military parade, Bush insisted that the United States and allies were making "good progress" in the country.

"I will tell you now that we're making progress in Afghanistan, but there is tough fighting. I am under no illusions this is not tough, I know we are dealing with a determined enemy."

"I think we are making progress but there is a very resilient enemy," Bush said, comparing the current situation in Afghanistan, with the Taliban regime toppled by the United States.

"They did not believe in women's rights, they did not let little girls go to school, they provided safe haven to Al-Qaeda."

With Americans facing a sharpening economic pinch, Bush sidestepped questions about whether the United States was already in recession, but did diagnose "a slow economy."

He cautioned of "very difficult economic times," while arguing for the need to extend tax cuts to help stimulate activity.

The president also rejected the notion of stopping purchases or tapping the US strategic oil reserve, saying the action would not affect prices.

The president also said the will of Zimbabwe's voters for change be respected and urged neighboring countries to step up pressure on the "failed" regime of Robert Mugabe to accept election results.

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