Saturday November 10 10:44 AM ET

Bush to U.N.: 'Time for Action' Against Terror

By Randall Mikkelsen

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - President Bush, in his first appearance before the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday, asked for action in the U.S.-led war on terrorism instead of sympathy for the Sept. 11 attacks.

``The time for sympathy has now passed. The time for action has now arrived,'' Bush told 48 presidents and prime ministers and 114 foreign ministers at the opening of the annual gathering in New York.

He said the threat of terrorism was global, and warned that those behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States would use weapons of mass destruction as soon as they were able. Bush has blamed the al Qaeda network of Islamic militant Osama bin Laden for the attacks.

``All the world faces the most horrifying prospect of all. These same terrorists are searching for weapons of mass destruction, the tools to turn their hatred into holocausts,'' he said.

``They can be expected to use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons the moment they are capable of doing so,'' he said. ``This threat cannot be ignored, this threat cannot be appeased. ... Civilization itself is threatened.''

He spoke with animation, wagging his finger repeatedly and punctuating his remarks with a clenched fist.

``Every nation in our coalition has duties,'' Bush said. He said countries helping to fight terrorism must go beyond steps already sought by the United Nations, such as cracking down on terrorist financing and sharing intelligence.

``These obligations are urgent and they are binding on every nation with a place in this chamber,'' he said.

The coalition must combat terrorism whatever its form, he said. ``There is no such thing as a good terrorist. No national aspiration nor remembered wrong can ever justify the deliberate murder of the innocent.''

The president said the United States is seeking to minimize the loss of innocent lives in Afghanistan as it bombs the country to destroy its Taliban leadership, which is accused of harboring bin Laden.

Bush said the Taliban and al Qaeda were ''indistinguishable.''

``The Afghan people do not deserve their present rulers,'' he said. ``I make this promise to all the victims of that regime. The Taliban's days of harboring terrorists and dealing in heroin and brutalizing women are drawing to a close.

``And when that regime is gone the people of Afghanistan will say with the rest of the world, 'good riddance.'''

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2001