The Diplomatic Offensive Intensifies
President Meets With Chirac, Signs Hill Resolution Authorizing Force

By Dan Balz and Alan Sipress
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 19, 2001; Page A01

Pausing to mark the terrorist attacks of a week earlier with a moment of silence, President Bush engaged yesterday in an intensive round of diplomacy designed "to rally the world" for the war he has promised against those responsible for the attacks.

At a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac, Bush said he is determined to build an international coalition for the long and difficult war against terrorism, and said this is a moment for other nations to stand and be counted. "If you love freedom, you must join with us," Bush said.

Chirac stopped short of calling the campaign against terrorism a "war," as Bush and many U.S. officials have described it. But Chirac said France stands "in total solidarity" with the United States and added that he was prepared to discuss with Bush "all means to fight and eradicate this evil." He added after a working dinner with Bush that France is determined to fight terrorism and wants to participate in the international effort.

Last night, Bush signed the joint House-Senate resolution authorizing the use of force to respond to the terrorist attacks, as well as the $40 billion emergency supplemental bill approved by Congress last week.

Bush's meeting with Chirac last night was the first of a series of face-to-face meetings with world leaders this week. They include a dinner Thursday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and sessions today with President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, and with the foreign ministers of Russia and Germany.

The diplomatic effort includes reaching out to such countries as Cuba and Sudan, with which the United States has had adversarial relationships.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell will meet with top officials from other countries as the administration continues its private preparations for a response to last week's attacks, using what administration officials called a "carrot-and-stick" approach to encourage support from other nations.

U.S. efforts to assemble an international coalition for a campaign against Osama bin Laden and other terrorists received a boost yesterday when Palestinians and Israelis announced steps to enforce a cease-fire after a year of escalating violence and bloodshed. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East had threatened to undermine U.S. efforts to build momentum for the antiterrorism campaign with many Arab and Muslim countries.

In what officials described as a long and tough conversation Monday night, Powell implored Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to squander an opportunity to renew cooperation with the Palestinians and warned that Israel would be ceding the moral high ground to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat if it refused.

Amid the uncertainty and disruption caused by the terrorist attacks and the coming response by the United States and other nations, Bush administration officials and congressional leaders moved forward to help bolster the weakened economy and pledged their support to the beleaguered airline industry.

Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta met with airline executives yesterday and said the industry must be "made whole." As aircraft maker Boeing Co. announced plans for as many as 30,000 layoffs, the airline executives came seeking $24 billion in assistance. Congressional leaders last night were working on a $17.5 billion rescue package.

On their second day of operation since the attacks, the financial markets stabilized, briefly rebounding before ending the day in negative terrority. The Dow Jones industrial average fell about 17 points after posting a 685-point loss in Monday's huge sell-off. The Nasdaq fell 24 points after Monday's 116-point loss.

Presidential counselor Karen P. Hughes said the White House had established a task force to oversee the domestic response to the terrorist attacks, much as the National Security Council is coordinating the war on terrorism.

"We are moving from a week where we dealt with rescue efforts to dealing with the broader responsibilities of the long-term effects on the economy," Hughes said.

Today Bush will meet with the bipartisan leadership of Congress to discuss the economy and other issues after those leaders solicit recommendations for an economic stimulus package from Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, White House economic adviser Lawrence B. Lindsey and former treasury secretary Robert Rubin.

Bush joined in a moment of silence with Vice President Cheney and members of their staffs on the South Lawn at the White House at 8:48 a.m., the precise moment the first plane hit the World Trade Center's North Tower seven days before. At the same moment, radio stations around the country played patriotic music to commemorate the victims of the attacks.

Later, at a Rose Garden ceremony, Bush paid tribute to the rescue workers and the charities that have rushed to help in the recovery efforts. "Last week was a really horrible week for America," Bush said. "But out of our tears and sadness, we saw the best of America as well."

Bush's words of encouragement came as New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani offered a grim assessment of the massive rescue effort underway around the Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

"The overwhelming reality of the chance of recovering anyone is very, very small," he said. "We don't have a substantial amount of hope that we can offer anyone that we're going to find someone alive. But we're still trying."

So far, 5,422 people have been reported missing and 218 have been confirmed dead, with 115 bodies identified. Sanitation workers have hauled away 49,553 tons of debris, city officials said.

Giuliani toured the area with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and members of Congress. "It's very important for them to view it directly," Giuliani said. "I do believe there is something very, very different that happens when you actually get to see it."

The diplomatic activity signaled the quickening pace of preparations here and in other capitals. As the administration continues to press Afghanistan to turn over bin Laden, officials are seeking assistance from countries around the world.

Yesterday, Powell met with Foreign Minister Han Seung Soo of South Korea, which holds the rotating presidency of the U.N. General Assembly. Han promised South Korea's full participation in any international coalition to tackle terrorism.

Today's meetings will include sessions with foreign ministers from several countries crucial to a worldwide campaign. At a long-scheduled meeting between Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, a key topic will be cooperation in confronting terrorism, U.S. officials said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the international community should punish "evil," such as the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks, but warned that any response must be based on solid evidence linking the targets to the crime.

Powell is also set to meet today with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and could also see his Saudi counterpart, Prince Saud Faisal, who is scheduled to arrive in Washington.

Administration officials said they plan to press him for information about the terrorist conspiracy -- as many as two-thirds of the hijackers had some link to the desert kingdom -- and ask for full cooperation in providing intelligence and cutting off the financial support wealthy Saudis have given bin Laden.

Saudi Arabia is the most important U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, and it could lend a degree of legitimacy among Muslim countries to U.S. efforts confronting bin Laden and his network.

Before meeting with Chirac, Bush spoke by telephone with Annan, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Today he will try to enlist support from Indonesia's Megawati.

Powell spoke by telephone late Monday with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail in the highest-level conversation held by the two countries in years. Though the United States considers Sudan to be a state sponsor of terrorism and has accused it of providing a haven to militants from bin Laden's network, State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said Powell and his Sudanese counterpart held a "good beginning discussion."

He said U.S. officials had also visited Cuba's interest section in Washington and asked for any assistance Havana could provide. Cuba, which is also on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, has denounced the attacks on New York and Washington.

One of the most significant meetings will be that with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, scheduled for Friday, which will be followed by a visit to Washington by Chinese counterterrorism experts. Boucher said those discussions will focus on ways of enhancing cooperation between the two countries. This would mark a notable step in improving U.S.-China ties after they were strained during the first months of the Bush administration.

At a news conference yesterday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld hinted that the government has evidence showing there was state sponsorship of last week's attacks. He said that the campaign against terrorism "will not be quick and it will not be easy" and that the goal is "to drain the swamp they live in." He added: "We have a choice, either to change the way we live, which is unacceptable, or to change the way that they live, and we chose the latter."

Rumsfeld said the legal ban on government-sponsored assassinations restricts what the government can do in its pursuit of bin Laden, who is described as the prime suspect in the attacks. But former president Bill Clinton, in an interview with NBC News, said the ban should pose no hurdle. The ban applies only to heads of state, not terrorists, he said. "I can assure you we've been trying to get Osama bin Laden for the last several years."

Staff writers Keith L. Alexander, Mike Allen, Helen Dewar, Sally Jenkins, Glenn Kessler and Elaine Rivera contributed to this report.