Bush wants armed guards on US flights

Many marshals are already in training

US President George Bush is expected to announce a series of sweeping new measures on Thursday to improve flight security in the wake of the suicide attacks on New York and Washington.

Mr Bush wants a huge expansion of the existing provision for putting armed plain-clothes agents - or air marshals - on domestic flights, and measures to strengthen cockpit doors to prevent unauthorised entry.

But he has indicated that he is opposed to calls for airline pilots to be armed.

As the investigation into the 11 September attacks continues, authorities in the United States have arrested nine more people on charges of illegally obtaining licences to transport hazardous materials.

Twenty-nine people have now been detained in an investigation into the possibility that the hijackers who attacked New York and Washington may have considered an attack using trucks loaded with hazardous substances, including chemicals and nuclear waste.

In other developments:

• US civil rights campaigner Jesse Jackson says Taleban have invited him to lead a peace delegation to Pakistan
• President Bush calls on rebels in Chechnya, fighting Russian forces, to sever all ties with Osama Bin Laden, prime suspect in the terror attacks on New York and Washington
  
  

  Pakistan is already inundated with refugees
  
• Relatives of the more than 6,000 people missing after the World Trade Center attack begin the painful process of seeking death certificates
• Taleban leader Mullah Omar urges tens of thousands of Afghans fleeing their homes to return, saying the threat of American military attack is receding
• Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei launches a bitter attack on the US, saying Iran will play no part in an attack on Afghanistan
• Thousands of people hold an anti-US demonstration in the Afghan capital, Kabul, setting fire to parts of the former US embassy
• Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rules out any single co-ordinated assault against international terrorism
• US officials brief Nato allies in Brussels on broad thrust of military and diplomatic war on terrorism.

Top targets

New details have also emerged about planned terrorist attacks in Europe.

The US ambassador to France, Howard Leach, confirmed that a man with links to Osama Bin Laden, prime suspect for the US attacks, had revealed a massive operation to target several key European buildings when he was arrested in July.

Mr Leach said the US embassy in Paris, the consulate in Marseilles, as well as Nato headquarters in Brussels and the European Parliament building in Strasbourg were all targets of an alleged al-Qaida cell in Europe.

Six Algerians were arrested in Spain

Earlier, Spanish police arrested six Algerians with alleged links to Bin Laden, while in France seven members of an Islamic organisation were placed under formal investigation and jailed.

Altogether 30 suspected members of the group are in custody.

European police are now involved in a massive manhunt for another 20, thought to be still at large.

Ailing industry

Mr Bush will try to rally support for US airlines during a visit to Chicago on Thursday.

One of my concerns is that this terrible incident has convinced many Americans to stay at home

President Bush

The industry has been hit by falling passenger numbers and has laid off more than 100,000 staff.

There are fewer flights, and many are only one-third full.

"One of my concerns is that this terrible incident has convinced many Americans to stay at home," Mr Bush said.

BBC Washington correspondent Paul Reynolds says people are put off by fear and by the hassle factor, waiting longer to check in.

Pierre Jeanniot, head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has said security could be improved by biometric testing - the testing of passengers' irises.

However, the technology for this is still being developed and it is unclear when it could be introduced.

At the United Nations in New York, the diplomatic response to the attacks is gaining momentum.

A number of initiatives have been launched to deal with international terrorism - and the UN Security Council may begin considering a US resolution on Thursday which proposes ways of stopping the financing of terrorist groups, improving the extradition of suspects and advance the exchange of information.