The US Administration yesterday thanked the Irish Government for its solidarity and the offer of military landing rights as both governments pledged close co-operation in the UN Security Council, whose chair Ireland assumes on Monday.
Speaking to journalists following a meeting at the State Department with the Minister For Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, pledged to return to the UN for further assistance in the campaign against terrorism. But, asked whether the US needed a further UN mandate to define the scope of its planned military action, Mr Powell said that as the question arose President George Bush would have to decide whether he already had sufficient authority.
Mr Cowen paid tribute both to the Adminstration's resolve and to its restraint in building a global coalition for a campaign that of necessity had to be "multi-faceted".
The US military build-up intensified as crowds looted the deserted US embassy in Kabul and refugees continued to stream towards the Pakistan border.
Meanwhile in Brussels the US Deputy Defence Secretary, Mr Paul Wolfowitz, briefing NATO allies on the US deployment, said the main role they could play would not be directly military but in intelligence-sharing, police co-operation and other measures to fight terrorism. The US is expected to rely on bilateral military support from allies rather than using multilateral organisations like NATO with constraining collective command and control structures.
Despite Iran's decision, announced yesterday, not to assist the US militarily in any attack on Afghanistan, the US has received strong support from other frontline states.
Agencies reported that the Pakistani government had reached a broad agreement with the US about its assistance with an attack on bases in Afghanstan. It is likely to involve using Pakistani airbases and sharing of intelligence but no basing of significant US troop numbers.
Speculation in Washington has increased that Pakistan has also persuaded the US not to throw its weight behind the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan but to emphasise the need to split the Taliban and the tribes that support them in a bid to unseat the current Taliban leadership. Pakistan views the Alliance with considerable hostility, while the Russians, on the other hand, have increased their support to them.
US military options have expanded as other regional powers have opened their airspace. US supply planes are already reported to have landed in Uzbekistan and the Russians have given unprecedented approval for the US use of bases in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, "if the need arises".
Kyrgystan and Kazkhstan, which do not border directly on Afghanistan, have also expressed a willingness to allow their airspace to be used, while Turkmensiatn, which does, has said that its airspace would be open to US flights but only for humanitarian missions.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said yesterday his country would provide no help in any attack on Afghanistan. The decision will cause no surprise here - the best the US expected from Tehran was inaction - but there are hopes that the groundbreaking on a new relationship started by the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, can be followed up.
"Iran will provide no help to America and its allies ... in an attack on suffering, neighbouring, Muslim Afghanistan," Khamenei told a group of war veterans and their families.
"We do not believe America is sincere enough to lead an international move against terrorism. America has its hands deep in blood for all the crimes committed by the Zionist regime," he added.
"American officials say 'there are no good or bad terrorists', but they (the Americans) themselves have doublestandards on terrorism."
But Khamenei condemned terrorism, calling for a "serious fight and a holy war to combat terrorism". "It is not that any one who is with you is against terrorism and those who are against you are for it," he said. "We are neither with you nor with the terrorists."
In the US there has been an intensifiaction of the debate on airport security with the Admisnitration making clear it favours the idea of more armed marshalls on flights and steel doors to protect cockpits. Mr Bush is expected to make announcements today on a full package of measures when he flies on Air Force One to Chicago to talk to airport workers.
Proposals from the airline pilots' union to allow their members to carry handguns are unlikely to be endorsed by the Administration.
And there are moves in Congress to go beyond the increased supervision of airport security firms that Mr Bush is said to favour. Legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate to have passenger screening done by better-paid federal employees rather than the low-wage workers who now carry out this function.
Meanwhile the Boston Globe has reported that Logan International Airport, the departure point for two of the four hijacked planes, has one of the worst security records among the nation's major airports.
The newspaper, citing data recorded by the Federal Aviation Administration between 1991 and 2000, said the airport had the fifth-highest number of security violations, logging 531 violations.
The Globe said FAA agents slipped 234 guns and inert hand grenades and bombs past guards or X-ray machines during a 10-year-period.
Meanwhile the FBI has intensified its nationwide investigation into applications by heavy goods drivers for hazardous waste.
