US leaders tout successes against terrorism but insist war goes on.

(From Agence France Presse)

In speeches half a world apart, President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Thursday hailed the United States' successes in its war on terrorism, pledging the fight would go on.

The recent ouster of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and last year's defeat of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan were touted as significant advances as the two -- using virtually the same words -- declared the fighting all but over in both countries.

Their comments, formal endorsements of what lower-ranking US officials had previously said, come on the heels of a State Department report released Wednesday which said the number of terrorist attacks worldwide fell to a 30-year low in 2002.

Bush, who was to speak aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the US west coast, called the ouster of Saddam "a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We have removed an ally of al-Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding," according to excerpts of his speech.

Earlier, in Kabul, Rumsfeld praised advances in that country since the Taliban regime was ousted at the end of 2001.

"We are at the point where we have clearly moved from major combat activities to a period of stability and stabilization and reconstruction activities," Rumsfeld said after meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai.