We will lead the war on terrorism: Bush

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 13. Fighting back tears, the President, Mr. George W. Bush, vowed on Thursday that America would ``lead the world to victory'' over terrorism in a struggle he termed the first war of the 21st Century. He announced plans to visit New York, site of the World Trade Center twin towers that were destroyed by attacks earlier in the week.

``I weep and mourn with America,'' the President said at the White House as officials said the toll from attacks in New York and on the Pentagon on Tuesday would reach into the thousands. ``There is a quiet anger in America,'' Mr. Bush said in a telephone conference call with the New York Governor, Mr. George Pataki, and the Mayor, Mr. Rudolph Giuliani.

``My resolve is steady and strong about winning this war that has been declared on America,'' the President added. ``It's a new kind of war... This Government will adjust and this Government will call other Governments to join us.''

Mr. Bush's eyes were red and wet as he ended his conference, his head and hands trembling slightly as he made his remarks.

He said he had consulted a broad range of foreign leaders, had found ``universal support'' for the U.S. and expected there would be backing for whatever retaliation he ordered.

Mr. Bush started work in the Oval Office on Thursday with another round of calls to world leaders as part of his effort to build a multinational coalition. Leaders of Japan, Italy, Saudi Arabia and NATO ``have all said they will stand together with the United States to combat terrorism,'' the White House Press Secretary, Mr. Ari Fleischer said.

NATO's policy-making council invoked a Cold War-era mutual defence pledge for the first time on Wednesday, declaring that the attack on the U.S. was an attack on all allies and could draw a collective military response.

With a sense of urgency on every front, the Government deployed agents to the nation's awakening airports on Thursday to help make the return to the skies safe.

`Osama prime suspect'

The U.S. Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, identified Osama bin Laden as a prime suspect in the terrorist attacks and said he would press the President of Pakistan for information on his operations.

Gen. Powell, at a news conference on Thursday, became the first senior Bush administration official to say for the record what many have been saying privately: that Osama bin Laden is suspected of engineering the attacks.

``We are looking at those terrorist organisations who have the kind of capacity that would have been necessary to conduct the kind of attack that we saw,'' Gen. Powell said.

Saying the administration had not yet publicly identified the organisation it believed responsible, Gen. Powell added: ``When you look at the list of candidates, one resides in the region.''

Asked whether he was referring to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi expatriate who runs a terrorist network from Afghanistan, Gen. Powell replied: ``Yes.''

Numerous officials said intelligence information pointed toward a coordinated attack masterminded by Osama bin Laden. Despite an intensive investigation and widely televised police raids on hotels in the Boston area, no arrests have been made.

The Attorney-General, Mr. John Ashcroft, said ``a number of hijackers were trained as pilots in the United States itself.'' He said federal authorities had identified a team of 50 persons who may have helped plan or carry out Tuesday's attacks.

In New York, the 54-storey building housing Nasdaq's new headquarters partially collapsed in a plume of smoke, more than 30 hours after Tuesday's attack toppled the twin towers of the World Trade Center located across it.

Nasdaq had moved into the building only in recent months and would now need to find a new headquarters though its spokesman said the loss of the building would have little effect on its technical facilities.

Mr. Giuliani said 4,763 people had been reported missing in the devastation of the Trade Center. Crews combed through the ruins, desperate to find a living soul.

Rescue work was slowed by hellish bursts of flame and the collapse of the last standing section of one of the towers.

The effort was mirrored at the Pentagon, where 190 people were feared dead and 70 bodies had been recovered.

The 4,763 missing reported by Mr. Giuliani along with the deaths in Washington and Pennsylvania when commandeered airliners crashed into the Pentagon and a grassy field southeast of Pittsburgh would bring the total to more than 5,000.

Germany joins hunt

A report from Hamburg, Germany, quoting the chief federal prosecutor, said on Thursday that authorities were searching for a man of Arab origin suspected of involvement in the attacks in the U.S.

Three of the men who participated in the attacks were believed to have studied electronics at the Technical University in Hamburg, Mr. Kay Nehm told a news conference in the city of Karlsruhe.

He said the man was suspected of murder and attacking air traffic as well as having membership of a terrorist organisation.

``There is a suspicion that, since the beginning of this year, a group has been founded in Hamburg... with the aim of carrying out serious crimes together with other Islamic fundamentalist groups abroad, to attack the United States in a spectacular way through the destruction of symbolic buildings,'' Mr. Nehm's office said in a statement.

Three of the men believed to have studied in Hamburg were on board the first aircraft that hit the World Trade Center on Tuesday, while the third was on board the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, he said.

Uniforms and a suicide note were found in a piece of luggage they left at the airport in Boston, Mr. Nehm said.

- AP, Reuters, PTI

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