US: President George W Bush has claimed that his administration has made significant progress in fighting terrorism since the 9/11 attacks five years ago but acknowledged that violent Islamists have evolved in response to US actions.
"We are a nation at war and America and her allies are fighting this war across the world," Mr Bush told a meeting of the Military Officers Association of America in Washington.
Declaring that "America is safer but we are not yet safe", the White House yesterday published an updated counter-terrorism strategy that calls for action to diminish the "underlying conditions" that fuel terrorism as well as tough action against terrorists.
"In the short run, the fight involves the application of all instruments of national power and influence to kill or capture the terrorists; deny them safe haven and control of any nation; prevent them from gaining access to WMD; render potential terrorist targets less attractive by strengthening security; and cut off their sources of funding and other resources they need to operate and survive. In the long run, winning the war on terror means winning the battle of ideas. Ideas can transform the embittered and disillusioned either into murderers willing to kill innocents, or into free peoples living harmoniously in a diverse society," it says.
The document reflects a shift of focus in the administration's anti-terrorism strategy away from al-Qaeda towards other agents, supporters and sponsors of Islamist violence.
"Terrorist networks today are more dispersed and less centralised. They are more reliant on smaller cells inspired by a common ideology and less directed by a central command structure," it says.
Arguing that Islamist terrorism is not simply a response to the US invasion of Iraq, the document identifies political alienation as the most important motivation for support of terrorism.
"Transnational terrorists are recruited from populations with no voice in their own government and see no legitimate way to promote change in their own country. Without a stake in the existing order, they are vulnerable to manipulation by those who advocate a perverse political vision based on violence and destruction," it says.
The document does not mention Osama bin Laden by name, but Mr Bush yesterday quoted extensively from the al-Qaeda leader's own words.
"Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. The question is 'Will we listen? Will we pay attention to what these evil men say?'," he said.