The president is expected in coming days to make a proclamation, possibly in the form of national monument additions, setting aside the USS Arizona Memorial and other Pacific war sites for greater protection and recognition, officials said.

The Arizona Memorial's mission could broaden to tell more of the Pacific war story.

The memorial was dedicated in 1962, and the battlefield site run by the National Park Service since 1980 is world renowned, but it's never been proclaimed by the president or legislated by Congress to be an official national park unit.

That would change if the memorial becomes a national monument. President Bush in May proposed giving Pearl Harbor monument status alongside such landmarks as the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon and Custer Battlefield.

The park service previously said it was interested in certain sites receiving monument status on Ford Island, which has been called ground zero for the Dec. 7, 1941, attack.

Sunday will mark the 67th anniversary of the attack.

The president directed Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to assess the "advisability of providing additional recognition or protection" to historic sites at Pearl Harbor and elsewhere in the Pacific that played important roles in World War II.

Frank Hays, a National Park Service official, previously said national parks usually have "enabling legislation" from Congress or a proclamation by the president that lays out the mission for that particular park.

The Arizona Memorial never received it, but that mission would be spelled out if the Arizona Memorial is declared a national monument.

It also could receive a name change. The USS Arizona is the final resting place for many of the battleship's 1,177 crewmen who lost their lives in the Japanese attack.

In 2006, Bush gave the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands monument status, creating the world's largest protected marine area. The 1,200-mile string of islands subsequently was designated as the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

In August, Bush said he was interested in protecting additional Pacific Ocean areas.