WASHINGTON (AP): President George W. Bush on Wednesday declared al-Qaeda ``public enemy No. 1 in Iraq,'' placing increasing emphasis on the terror network forever associated with the deadliest attack in U.S. history.

The president also seemed to offer another definition of success in Iraq _ not a lack of violence, but a livable level for citizens.

In a speech to construction contractors, Bush put a heavy focus on al-Qaeda, which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. In doing so, he sought more bluntly to cast the unpopular Iraq war in terms that U.S. citizens could connect to their own lives.

``For America, the decision we face in Iraq is not whether we ought to take sides in a civil war, it's whether we stay in the fight against the same international terrorist network that attacked us on 9/11,'' Bush said. ``I strongly believe it's in our national interest to stay in the fight.''

In Congress and across the United States, support for the war has long eroded as sectarian bloodletting gripped Baghdad. In the eyes of Democratic lawmakers and much of the war-weary public, U.S. forces have been dragged into a civil war between Shias and Sunnis.

``The recent attacks are not the revenge killings that some have called a civil war,'' Bush told the Associated General Contractors of America. ``They are a systematic assault on the entire nation. Al-Qaeda is public enemy No. 1 in Iraq.''