The US has rejected suggestions from Afghanistan's Taliban of talks about Osama bin Laden, reiterating its insistence that he and his organisation should be surrendered by Kabul.
"The President's message to the Taliban is very simple," the White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said. "It's time for action, not negotiations." Mr Bush, Mr Fleischer said, wanted the Taliban "to take the actions necessary to no longer harbour terrorists" whatever form it took.
Earlier Mr Bush, speaking with the Indonesian president, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, at his side, had appealed once again to the nations of the world to join the fight against terrorism, whether overtly or covertly. Both emphasised the need to distinguish between terrorism and Islam. Mr Bush also contacted the South Korean president, Mr Kim dae Jung and the South African president, Mr Thabo Mbeki. He was later due to see the foreign ministers of Russia and Germany.
"Help us round up these people," he said, acknowledging that "some nations will be comfortable supporting covert activities, some nations will only be comfortable with providing information. Others will be helpful and will only be comfortable supporting financial matters. I understand that."
As the aircraft carrier USS Franklin Roosevelt left Norfolk, Virginia, with its 5,500 crew and its retinue of 14 other ships to join three battle groups already in the Mediterranean, Mr Bush continued to work on building his global alliance. However, the message from key potential allies such as the Chinese, who are queueing up to meet him, is to base his approach on a multilateral approach, close consultation, rock-solid evidence and UN authority.
In New York, the French president, Mr Jacques Chirac, pledged that France would "draw the consequences" for its trading relationship with states such as Iraq and Iran if evidence emerged of collusion by them in the attacks.
The German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, said after meeting the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, that his government "rules out no option" in assisting the US in its anti-terrorism campaign. Two allies, Japan and Australia, pledged military assistance for any strike on bin Laden.
"There's no point in a situation like this being an 80 per cent ally," Australia's Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The Attorney General, Mr John Ashcroft, leading the US investigation, used the Pentagon as a backdrop for a declaration that terrorists had benefited from the help of some foreign governments.
"It is pretty clear that the networks that conduct these kind of events are harboured, supported, sustained and protected by a variety of foreign governments," he said. "It is time for those governments to understand with crystal clarity that the United States of America will not tolerate that kind of support for networks that would inflict this kind of damage."
Meanwhile, three men detained in Detroit on Tuesday were charged with identity fraud and misuse of visas. Court records say the FBI seized documents suggesting the men worked in food preparation for airlines at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and collected information about a US military base in Turkey, an airport in Jordan and diagrams of aircraft locations and runways.
Authorities have grown increasingly certain - from intelligence intercepts, witness interviews and evidence gathered in hijackers' cars and homes - that a second wave of violence was planned by collaborators.
