In its annual "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report, the State Department also said Tripoli and Khartoum were making the most progress toward ending their status as so-called "rogue states."

"Sudan and Libya seem closest to understanding what they must do to get out of the terrorism business and each has taken measures pointing it in the right direction," it said.

Sudan has boosted counter-terrorism cooperation with the United States and Libya has repeatedly renounced terrorism and moved "to recast itself as a peacemaker."

The report also noted that Iran, North Korea and Syria had taken limited steps to end support for terrorists, although it accused Tehran and Damascus of backsliding.

In Iran's case, the positive steps were outweighed by its continued support for anti-Israel groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC).

Irans Revolutionary Guard and its intelligence and security ministry "continued to be involved in the planning and support of terrorist acts and supported a variety of groups that use terrorism to pursue their goals," it said.

However, while Iran continued to back groups opposed to the Middle East peace process, the report noted that Tehran seemed to have reduced its support for other terrorist groups, notably in the Persian Gulf, Africa, Turkey and Central Asia, according to the report.

And Iran was not involved in the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, and in fact offered assistance to the United State in case US warplanes involved in the campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan were shot down, the report said.

"There is no evidence of Iranian sponsorship or foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks in the United States," it said, noting that Iran's reformist President Mohammad Khatami had condemned the attacks, which are blamed on suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.

In January, President George W. Bush described Iran, Iraq and North Korea as "an axis of evil" bent on backing extremists and trying to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and suggested that the United States might move unilaterally against them if it believes they represent a grave enough threat.

In Tuesday's report, Iraq came in for harsh criticism, in particular for its refusal to speak out against the September 11 attacks.

"Iraq was the only Arab-Muslim country that did not condemn the September 11 attacks against the United States," it said, noting that government-approved commentaries in Baghdad had blamed them on US policies and expressed sympathy for bin Laden.

Iraq also continued to support several groups identified by the United States as "foreign terrorist organizations," including Kurdish separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Iranian People's Mujahadin, the Palestine Liberation Front and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

After some initial progress, the report said North Korea's anti-terror cooperation "halted abruptly" in 2001 and that its "response to international efforts to combat terrorism has been disappointing."

The report noted that North Korea had condemned the September 11 attacks and signed a UN convention on suppressing terrorist financing, but had not responded to various requests for anti-terror dialogue.

Pyongyang also continued to give safe haven to four Japanese Red Army members who hijacked a Japan Airlines flight to North Korea in 1970, it said, calling its refusal to turn them over "problematic."

"Moreover," it said, "some evidence suggested (North Korea) may have sold limited quantities of small arms to terrorist groups during the year."

In early May, Washington accused Cuba, Syria and Libya of also seeking weapons of mass destruction in a speech entitled "Beyond the Axis of Evil."

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has "vacillated over the war on terrorism" since September 11, the report said, noting that while Havana had not objected to housing al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, it continued to provide haven to some 20 members of the Basque separatist group ETA and Colombian leftists.

On Syria, the report said Damascus had been cooperating with US anti-terror efforts, but continued to house a number of anti-Israel groups.

related report
Terrorists Will Inevitably Get Weapons Of Mass Destruction - Rumsfeld
Washington (AFP) May 21, 2002 - Warning that terrorists will inevitably get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that the United States was living in a period of "limited or no warning" of attack.

Rumsfeld highlighted the threat of weapons of mass destruction in responding to questions by senators about recent warnings by top administration officials that another major terrorist attack against the United States was a near certainty.

"We have to recognize the fact that terrorist networks have relations with terrorist states that have weapons of mass destruction, and that they inevitably are going to get their hands on them, and they would not hesitate one minute in using them," Rumsfeld said.

"We are going to be living in a period of limited or no warning because of the asymmetrical advantages of the attacker as opposed to the defender," he told the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"The only thing to be surprised about is that we're surprised when we're surprised," he said.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, releasing the State Department's annual "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report, echoed Rumsfeld's comments.

"Terrorists are trying every way they can to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, whether radiological, chemical, biological or nuclear," he told reporters.

Asked by lawmakers whether he had seen specific warnings of terrorist attacks, Rumsfeld said that his daily intelligence briefings invariably contained reports on a series of threats: "Specific in a few cases, general in other cases, not specific as to time, not always specific as to location, rarely as to location," he said. "If you add them all up, they end up in the hundreds."

In most cases, he said, threat warnings were deliberately planted by foes just to see how the United States would respond.

"And they jerk us around, try to jerk us around anyway, and test us, stress our force in a way," he said.

However, Rumsfeld concurred with Vice President Dick Cheney that the United States faced "additional terrorist threats."

"The question is not if, but where and when and how," he said.

Hundreds of terrorists trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan are spread around the world, including the UniteD States, he said.

He said US military forces were less likely to come under direct military attack because of their formidable capabilities.

Instead, he said, adversaries will seek out US vulnerabilities -- its dependence on a free and open way of life, on space assets, computer networks and electronic communications.

"The problem that I see, and it's a very serious one, is that there has been a proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," he said.

"And the terrorist networks have close linkages with terrorists states," he said.

He cited Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria and North Korea as countries with both close links to terrorist groups and chemical and biological weapons programs.

"We have to face up to the fact that we live in a world where our margin for error has become quite small," he said.

All rights reserved. � 2002 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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