U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday promised to slash gasoline consumption by 20 percent in 10 years, saying that it was in the country's vital interest to diversify its energy supply.

"It is in our vital interest to diversify America's energy supply and the way forward is through technology," Bush said in his annual State of the Union address, the first before a Democratic-controlled Congress in six years.

The United States must continue changing the way the country generates electric power - by even greater use of clean coal technology; solar and wind energy; and clean, safe nuclear power, he said.

Bush's new posture came under increasing domestic and international pressure on the environmental issues. The Bush administration has been skeptical of the impact of global warming since it assumed office in 2000. The United States, a major consumer of fossil fuels, withdrew from the Kyoto Protocal designed to control greenhouse effect.

Source: Xinhua