US President George W. Bush vowed Monday that the United States will stay its course in Iraq despite an escalation of attacks on both US troops and infrastructure facilities in the country over the past few days.

"It's in the national interest of the United States that a peaceful Iraq emerges and we will stay the course in order to achieve this objective," Bush said to reporters while meeting Paul Bremer, top US civilian administrator in Iraq, at the White House.

Calling them as "cold-blooded killers," Bush said the attackers are becoming increasingly "desperate" as the United States makes more progress in rebuilding Iraq.

"The more progress we make on the ground, the more free the Iraqis become, the more electricity that's available, the more jobs are available, the more kids that are going to school, the more desperate these killers become," the US president said.

Bush said, "The vast majority of Iraqis" want to live in a peaceful world." "We will find these people (who carried out attacks) and we will bring them to justice," he noted.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2003)