Portions of a Sept. 4, 2001, national security presidential directive were released as plans were set for national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify publicly on April 8 before the Sept. 11, 2001, commission.

Responding to strong political pressure from both Republicans and Democrats, the White House made an abrupt about-face on Tuesday and agreed to allow Rice to testify publicly and under oath after previously insisting she only speak to the panel privately.

A main area of questioning for Rice is expected to be claims by former US counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke that Bush ignored an urgent al-Qaeda threat before the 9/11 attacks and was fixated on Iraq.

The Sept. 4 presidential directive called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to plan for military options "against Taliban targets in Afghanistan, including leadership, command-control, air and air defense, ground forces, and logistics." It also called for plans against al-Qaeda and "associated terrorist facilities in Afghanistan, including leadership, command-control-communications, training, and logistics facilities."

Bush's re-election strategy rests heavily on his performance in the war on terrorism and the White House is sensitive to any suggestion that he was not doing enough to try to prevent the attacks.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a visit to Berlin, told ZDF German television that the Bush administration "did as much as we could, knowing what we knew about the situation."

The White House took issue with an article in The Washington Post that said Bush, Rice and others in the top echelon of power were more concerned about missile defense than terrorism in the months before 9/11.