The White House said on Friday that President George W. Bush will deliver a televised address to the American people on Sunday evening that will focus on the situation of Iraq.
Scott McClellan, the president's spokesman, said "the president believes this is a good time to talk to the American people about the progress we're making in our ongoing war on terrorism and our needs going forward", and that "there will be a focus on Iraq because Iraq is central to winning the war on terrorism.''
Mr Bush will speak at 8.30pm Washington time (00.30GMT). The address comes as the US is preparing to mark the second anniversary of the September 11 al-Qaeda attacks.
In Iraq itself on Friday, unidentified gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque in Baghdad, while armed militia assembled at Shia mosques across Iraq following recent violence against Shia religious leaders.
Three people were injured at the Quiba mosque in Baghdad during Friday morning prayers after between three and five gunmen sprayed the congregation with automatic rifle fire, Walid al-Azari, the imam, said on Friday. He said the gunmen escaped and no one knew their identity.
The attack comes as Shia militias gathered to provide security at mosques in Baghdad and Najaf, site of a car bomb last Friday that killed at least 83 people, including Mohammed Baqir al Hakim, the high ranking cleric.
Bitterly critical of US failure to provide security in Iraq, Shia groups appeared to be ignoring coalition rules against carrying weapons in public. US forces have preferred to avoid confrontations with Shia groups and made no attempts to disarm the militias.
Armed members of the Badr Corps, the military wing of Mr Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, were providing security in Najaf during a Friday sermon by Abdul Aziz Hakim, brother of the dead cleric.
In Baghdad, armed militia men were visible at the Mohsen mosque, a popular Shia mosque run by groups loyal to Muqtada al Sadr, a Shia cleric. Sheikh Hassan al Zirgani, who led the prayers, even brandished a Kalashnikov assault rifle during his sermon, saying "we will defend ourselves". He blamed last Friday's attack on Israel and America. "America doesn't defend us, and doesn't even let us defend ourselves," he shouted.
US and UK policymakers decided to ban militias in May, fearing that armed political parties would destabilise Iraq. The only exception they have made has been in Iraqi Kurdistan, where Kurdish paramilitary fighters have been allowed to keep their weapons.
In Amara the Fawj, a militia of dispossessed Marsh Arabs, has been allowed to function by the British administration there.
• Gunmen ambushed and killed a British bomb expert working in Iraq for a mine clearance charity, the charity said on Friday, Reuters reports from London.
Mines Advisory Group said Ian Rimell, 53, was shot dead on Thursday afternoon while returning to the city of Mosul in a car clearly marked with the charity's emblem.
Salem Ahmed Mohammed, an Iraqi colleague, was critically injured.