03 May 2004	Monday	12 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

WASHINGTON, May 2: President George W. Bush told a commission on the September 11 attacks that Al Qaeda was not outgoing president Bill Clinton's top security concern, Time magazine reported on Sunday.

Bush's testimony to the panel indicated that during a national security handover briefing, Clinton appeared far more passionate about the dangers of North Korea's nuclear programme and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, the magazine reported in its issue to hit newsstands on Monday.

Citing unnamed sources, it wrote that Bush said Clinton "probably mentioned" terrorism as a national-security threat "but did not make it a point of emphasis." That testimony contradicted Clinton's testimony to the panel some weeks ago, it wrote, that he told the commission he had ranked Osama as the most pressing problem the new administration would face.

A source also told the magazine that Bush testified he had not been warned of CIA and the FBI concerns about would-be 747 pilot Zacarias Moussaoui, who was arrested in August 2001.

The exact testimony given in the Oval Office last week by Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney remains confidential. The White House insisted Cheney join the president, that they not be sworn to tell the truth, and that there be no transcript or recording of the session - only notes taken by one panel staffer and two White House lawyers.

Bush said after the three-hour meeting on Thursday with the panel investigating the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that he and Cheney had answered every question put to them.

"If we had something to hide, we wouldn't have met with them in the first place. We answered all their questions," said the president who had only grudgingly agreed to talk with the commission under strict conditions. -AFP