St. Louis ? On a day when the postwar U.S. death toll climbed past the number killed in major combat, President Bush pledged “no retreat” in the war on terrorism and defended his actions in Iraq amid calls for more international help.

“We’re on the offensive against terror, and we will stay on the offensive against terror,” Bush told about 6,000 people Tuesday in a graying audience at the American Legion’s 85th national conference.

“We’ve adopted a new strategy for a new kind of war: We will not wait for known enemies to strike us again. We will strike them … before they hit more of our cities and kill more of our citizens.”

Bush faces tenuous situations on several fronts. In Afghanistan, U.S.-led troops are meeting with increasingly well-organized Taliban fighters. Rising violence between the Israelis and Palestinians has rocked the U.S.-brokered road map for peace. In Iraq, reconstruction work has been dealt a major setback by the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, and coalition forces still face persistent resistance from Saddam Hussein loyalists and terrorists.

Although no weapons of mass destruction have been found and some analysts point to loose links between Saddam and al-Qaida, Bush insisted that the United States was right to invade Iraq.

He said U.S.-led forces removed a brutal dictatorship that built, possessed and used weapons of mass destruction, sponsored terror and persecuted its people.

Bush cited progress in Iraq: More than 8,200 tons of ammunition seized since May 1. Forty-two of the 55 most-wanted Iraqi leaders captured or killed. “The more progress we make in Iraq, the more desperate the terrorists will become,” he said.

He cited progress in Afghanistan too: Roads being built. Medical clinics opening. Young girls attending school for the first time. Nearly two-thirds of known senior al-Qaida leaders, operational managers and other key figures have been either captured or killed.

On the rising violence between Israel and the Palestinians, Bush called on every leader in the Middle East and the Palestinian people to cut off all money and support for terrorists and actively fight terror on all fronts.