President Bush denied today that Iraq was in a state of civil war but refused to say whether he thought that American troops could be withdrawn by the time he wraps up his second term in the White House in 2009.

One day after the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, Mr Bush struggled at a Washington press conference to defend his strategy in Iraq, where some 2,300 Americans have been killed.

The President was asked whether there will come a day when there would be no more US soldiers in Iraq. He replied: "That is an objective. That will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq."

Pressed to say whether the 133,000 Americans currently serving in Iraq would be withdrawn by the time he leaves office in January 2009, Mr Bush was again evasive. "You mean a complete withdrawal? That’s a timetable," he said. "I can only tell you I will make decisions on force levels based upon what the commanders on the ground say."

His comments coincided with a speech in London by Tony Blair, who described the global War on Terror as a "clash about civilisation" and part of an enduring "struggle between democracy and violence".

In the first of a series of foreign policy speeches, the Prime Minister said: "This is, ultimately, a battle about modernity. Some of it can only be conducted and won within Islam itself. But don’t let us in our desire not to speak of what we can only imperfectly understand, or our wish not to trespass on sensitive feelings, end up accepting the very premise of the people fighting us."

Mr Blair disclosed that in countering domestic terrorism, his Cabinet had been advised against using the term "Islamist extremist". He said: "It will give offence. It is true. It will."

But using the example of Northern Ireland, he went on to say that Muslims who committed acts of terrorism were no more true to their faith than the "Protestant bigot" who murdered Catholics.

"But unfortunately he is still a Protestant bigot. To say his religion is irrelevant is both completely to misunderstand his motive and to refuse to face up to the strain of extremism within his religion that has given rise to it."

He added: "This is not a clash between civilisations. It is a clash about civilisation. It is the age-old battle between progress and reaction."

In Washington Mr Bush said that he did not agree with Iyad Allawi, the former interim prime minister of Iraq, who said at the weekend: "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

Mr Bush acknowledged the upsurge in sectarian violence after the recent bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra but said that he thought Iraq had come back from the brink.

"We all recognised that there is violence, that there is sectarian violance. But the way I look at the situation is, the Iraqis looked and decided not to go into civil war," he said.

Acknowledging the public’s growing unease with the war - and election-year nerves among fellow republicans - Mr Bush said that he would not "put those kids" in Iraq if he did not think that US objectives could be achieved.

He also stood by his embattled Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, saying: "I don’t believe he should resign. He’s done a fine job. Every war plan looks good on paper until you meet the enemy."

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