WASHINGTON, Oct 14: US President George Bush said on Monday he assumed Al Qaeda was behind a blast which ripped through a Bali nightclub killing around 190 people and piled pressure on Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri for a firm response.

“I think we have to assume it is Al Qaeda,” Bush told reporters when asked who he believed was responsible for Saturday’s attacks on the tourism paradise.

“We are beginning to hear some reports that are more definitive than that, I wait for our own analysis.

“But clearly, it is a deliberate attack on citizens that love freedom, on countries that embrace freedom.”

Bush said he would soon speak to Megawati, who even before the blast, had come under intense US pressure to do more to rout out extremist groups who see Indonesia’s myriad ethnic conflicts and civil disorder as an ideal staging ground.

“I will speak to Miss Megawati soon, she is in Bali right now, she is obviously grieving for her citizens that lost their lives,” Bush told reporters at the White House.

“I want to make it clear to her that we need to work together to find those who murdered all those innocent people and bring them to justice.”

“I hope I hear the resolve of a leader that recognises that any time terrorists take hold in the country it’s going to weaken the country itself.”

“There has to be a firm and deliberate desire to find the killers before they kill somebody else.”

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the Bali attack, which killed Australians, Britons, New Zealanders, and scores of other tourists.

But Indonesia and Australia had already suggested it was the work of the Al Qaeda, possibly helped by local groups.

Bush had on Sunday called the attack, a “heinous” act of terrorism, while the State Department urged Americans to leave Indonesia and began withdrawing some diplomats.

PATTERN: Bush said recent attacks on a French supertanker off Yemen, shooting incidents involving US Marines in Kuwait and the Bali bombing appeared to fit a pattern.