President Bush honoured America's veterans yesterday with the Memorial Day signing of legislation to construct a World War II monument at a controversial site on the National Mall.

Addressing an audience of veterans in the yellow-curtained East Room, the president also announced creation of a task force that will recommend major reforms in delivery of health care to veterans and military retirees.

Standing in front of an American flag and a portrait of George Washington, the president said the monument between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial "will stand for the ages".

"I will make sure the monument gets built," the president told the applauding veterans, among them former Sen. Bob Dole, who fought for the memorial.

Critics have said the design for the memorial is too grandiose and would clutter the Mall and obstruct the sweeping views.

President Clinton formally dedicated the site in 1995 and in 1997 announced the winner from more than 400 entries in a design competition.

Planned for a 7.4-acre site in the heart of the Mall, a circle of granite pillars will represent the states and territories and two four-story arches are to signify victory in Europe and Asia.

Sponsors say the actual monument will take up about one-third of the site and, including planning expenses from 1993 when Clinton signed a bill authorising the memorial, will cost about $160 million. Some $150 million has been received in pledges for private donations, with the rest to come from federal funding and interest payments.

The legislation was in reaction to a lawsuit filed last October by opponents arguing that federal laws had been violated in the review process.

The bill states that the memorial "shall be constructed expeditiously" at the Rainbow Pool site and that actions by the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission last year to move the project forward would not be subject to judicial review.

Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, a World War II veteran and a chief backer of the project, said after the bill passed that it eliminated all judicial challenges.

World War II veterans are dying at the rate of about 1,100 each day, Bush said recently. "It is time to give them the memorial they deserve," he said.

The health task force will be led by former Republican Representative Gerald Solomon of New York and Gail Wilensky, who ran Medicare for former President George Bush.

"I'm today announcing creation of a presidential task force to recommend major reforms in the delivery of health care to veterans and military retirees," Bush said to loud applause.

Many in the audience, veterans of several wars, work caps from veterans organisations _ some with medals pinned on them. Bush asked the World War II veterans to stand, and about a dozen stood up.

"My administration will do all it can to assist our veterans and correct oversights from the past," the president said.

He said his budget calls for significant increases in health care for veterans, and added the Department of Veterans Affairs is conducting a top-to-bottom review of the benefits claims process.

After the signing ceremony at the White House, Bush was to participate in the traditional wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery and make remarks.

Then he was flying to Mesa, Arizona, where he was to pay tribute to veterans at the Champlin Fighter Aircraft Museum, accompanied by Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi and Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona.

Arizona's other senator, Republican John McCain, is one of the nation's best-known veterans, but he was in Ireland meeting with foreign leaders, spokeswoman Nancy Ives said.