US President George W. Bush denied on Wednesday that a civil has broken out in Iraq, and termed violence in the war-ravaged country as "the legacy of (former Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein."

"Yet despite massive provocations, Iraq has not descended into civil war," Bush said during a speech in Washington.

To prove his point, Bush said Iraq's security forces had not broken up into sectarian groups waging war against each other, and soldiers of different ethnic groups worked together to protect religious sites, enforce a curfew, and restore civil order.

With Iraq's violence continuing and American public's support for the war remaining low, the president blamed Saddam Hussein for the violence and accused the toppled Iraqi leader of undertaking "a deliberate strategy of maintaining control by dividing the Iraqi people."

"In fact, much of the animosity and violence we now see is the legacy of Saddam Hussein," he said .

Repeating his rhetoric that Iraq was the central front of his war on terror, the president insisted that US forces would not leave Iraq "before the job is done."

"If we leave Iraq before the job is done, the terrorists will move in and fill the vacuum, and they will use that failed state to bring murder and destruction to freedom-loving nations," he said.

The bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra last month has sparked sectarian violence in Iraq, which has left hundreds of people dead, and many people feared the violence might turn into a civil war.

Bush has made several speeches in recent weeks to shore up public support for the Iraq war, which has now entered its fourth year.

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released earlier this month showed 57 percent of Americans believed the Iraq war was a mistake, half believed the war was going badly, and 67 percent said the president did not have a clear plan for handling the situation there.

(Xinhua News Agency March 30, 2006)