President Bush, working to find common ground with allies on a new U.N. Iraq resolution, sought to dispel controversy about recent administration statements on Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Bush indicated the United States is not yet ready to present a revised resolution to other governments on the U.N. Security Council but is trying to accommodate some allies' demands for bigger roles in Iraq's reconstruction for themselves and the United Nations. "We're still talking about it," he said.
Later Wednesday, Bush flew to Camp David, Md., a day early because of the approach of Hurricane Isabel. He was hosting Jordan's King Abdullah II at the Maryland mountain retreat for talks that had been scheduled for Thursday night and Friday morning. That period is exactly when the brunt of the storm was expected to reach the Washington area.
As Bush aides scrambled to move up the meetings to Thursday morning, a political irritant arose that could cloud the session designed as a treat for Abdullah, a vital White House ally in the Middle East. The Bush administration urged Jordan to restore its freeze on the bank accounts of six leaders of Hamas, an extremist group that has killed scores of Israelis with suicide bombings.
UN/Iraq compromise?