U.S. President George W. Bush, in his first State of the Union address to a Democratic-controlled Congress, promised on Tuesday he will slash U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent in 10 years.

"For too long, our nation has been dependent on foreign oil. And this dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes and to terrorists who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments and raise the price of oil and do great harm to our economy," said Bush.

"I ask Congress to join me in pursuing a great goal: Let us build on the work we've done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years," he said in the speech.

Earlier Tuesday, Joel Kaplan, White House deputy chief of staff, told reporters in a briefing that Bush's proposal to cut gasoline reductions could be met mainly by increasing sharply the use of ethanol and other alternative fuels.

The rest of the reduction is to come from raising fuel economy standards for passenger cars.

Source: Xinhua