(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-04 23:23

WASHINGTON - President Bush, entrenched in disputes with Congress over spending and the war in Iraq, wants to intensify pressure on lawmakers when he addresses the media on Tuesday. It will be his first news conference in nearly seven weeks.

US President Bush makes a statement to reporters in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, December 3, 2007. [Agencies]

The president is expected again to admonish US Congress for not sending him spending bills, intelligence legislation and tax-law changes. Bush, taking advantage of his veto power and the largest bully pulpit in town, regularly scolds Congress as a way to stay relevant and frame the debate as his presidency winds down.

US Democrats counter that Bush is more interested in making statements than genuinely trying to negotiate some common ground with them.

The news conference is scheduled for 10:01 am EST Tuesday.

It comes one day after a new national intelligence estimate found that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003, largely because of international scrutiny and pressure. That finding is in stark contrast to the comparable intelligence estimate of just two years ago, when US intelligence agencies believed Tehran was determined to develop a nuclear weapons capability and was continuing its weapons development program.

Bush, at his last news conference on Oct. 17, said people "interested in avoiding World War III" should be interested in preventing Iran from having the knowledge needed to make a nuclear weapon.