The White House said that Bush would also renew his support for the so-called Doha Round of global free trade talks amid flickers of optimism about the stalled negotiations following the recent World Economic Forum in Davos.

"The president is committed to continuing to expand our trade agreements and support the Doha Round and the Doha agreement," lead Bush economic adviser Al Hubbard told reporters aboard the official presidential Air Force One airplane.

But Bush barely touched on those negotiations here, focusing instead on bilateral trade deals, and his push to preserve his tax cuts and education reforms while working to cut US dependency on oil imports.

"It's a strong economy, and the fundamental question is what are we going to do to keep it strong," said the US president, whose political clout has sharply eroded in large part of the unpopular war in Iraq.

The White House has been billing Wednesday's speech as a "state of the economy" -- a counterpoint to Bush's annual State of the Union address, which he gave January 23 -- ahead of unveiling his proposed budget on February 5.

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