WASHINGTON, April 30: President George W. Bush will address his nation from the deck of an aircraft carrier on Thursday to say that major combat in Iraq has ended, the White House said on Wednesday.

Talking to reporters, president’s press secretary Ari Fleischer said it would neither be a victory speech nor a formal declaration that the war was over.

Under the Geneva Convention, an international code of conduct that governs war and military conflict, once war is declared over, the victorious army must release prisoners of war and halt operations targeting specific leaders.

“This is not a formal legalistic ending of the conflict, no. It is the fact that major combat operations have ended,” Mr Fleischer said.

“The United States military forces continue to be fired at. So there are pockets of danger,” he said.

Mr Fleischer suggested that the president’s words would be chosen carefully to keep from formally declaring the war to be over.