Bush in China Seeking Coalition Support

Oct. 18 -- President Bush was expected to urge key Asian leaders at an economic summit in China to support his hard-line anti-terrorism stance, while the U.S. military continued to pound targets in Afghanistan.

As Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell prepared for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the U.S. military used new jets and spy drones to keep pounding Afghan cities and Taliban troop positions.

Powell, also in China for the APEC meeting in Shanghai, worked with representatives of the 21 other nations to prepare a draft statement on terrorism before the summit. The group came up with a strongly worded document.

Echoing some of Bush's language, the statement refered to the struggle against terrorism as "a fight between justice and evil, civilization and savagery."

But there was no mention of the airstrikes to topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and pave the way for the capture of bin Laden and the destruction of his al Qaeda network, which the Bush administration blames for the Sept. 11 attacks that left more than 5,000 dead or missing.

The bombing raids, launched Oct. 7, have been criticized by some of the nations participating in the summit, particularly the predominantly Islamic states Indonesia and Malaysia.

Terrorist organizations with links to bin Laden operate in several APEC nations including Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

In addition to the business of the summit, which is expected to focus mainly on economic issues, the president planned one-to-one meetings with leaders of several nations to build support for the U.S.-led coalition. Those were expected to be the leaders of China, Russia, Malaysia, Japan, Brunei, Singapore and Peru.

The United States got a boost before Bush's arrival when the Japanese legislature approved the deployment of ships and troops to serve as support for the forces actively engaged in the U.S.-led military campaign. The deployment had been stalled for more than a week since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed the measure.