WASHINGTON, March 11: Marking the six-month anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks at a sombre event on Monday, President George Bush reinforced earlier indications of widening the “war against terrorism” to countries that allegedly possessed weapons of mass destruction and sponsored terrorist organizations.

Without naming Iraq, which he has previously described along with Iran and North Korea as part of an “axis of evil,” Mr Bush told diplomatic representatives gathered on the south lawn of the White House on a cold but sunny morning that some states who sponsored terrorism already possessed weapons of mass destruction, and terrorists were hungry to get their hands on such weapons.

The coalition, Mr Bush said, must act deliberately, but lack of action was not an option.

The renewal of the Bush administration’s warning to states the US accuses of possessing or acquiring weapons of mass destruction coincides with Vice-President Richard Cheney’s trip to the Middle East to drum up support for action against Iraq, a proposal viewed with open trepidation by Turkey, Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries.

But Turkey’s ambassador was among three envoys chosen to speak at Monday’s ceremony, the other two being the ambassadors of South Korea and Nigeria. The choice was interpreted as being based on the groundwork being prepared by the US for the next stage in the campaign against terrorism, with Turkey’s cooperation considered to be vital for any political or military offensive against Iraq and South Korea’s for action against North Korea. Oil-rich Nigeria is seen as facing a rise in fundamentalism in the north of the country and as a possible sanctuary for terrorists.

President Bush praised the support received from coalition countries, and specifically mentioned the backing extended by states like Pakistan and Uzbekistan. He said every nation in the coalition must take note of the threat posed on a catastrophic scale by weapons of mass destruction, and in preventing this, there was no “margin for error.” Every civilized nation had a stake in the fight against terrorism, and terrorists should find no government behind which they could hide.

Mr Bush expressed the hope that once terrorism was defeated, many old conflicts would appear in a new light and old disputes would be settled within the bounds of reason.

Stressing that Al Qaeda had lost its base in Afghanistan, Mr Bush said many of its most dangerous fighters were trying to regroup, but the US would prevent this from happening. There were, he said, other battles to be fought beyond Shahikot, the area in eastern Afghanistan where US and coalition troops are currently encountering stiff resistance from hundreds of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

A poll by The Washington Post and ABC News published on Monday shows that nine in 10 Americans continue to support the military action in Afghanistan, unchanged from November results. Almost the same percentage thought the war was going reasonably well. Eight in 10 Americans believe that the worst of the war is yet to come.