US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. (Reuters)

Washington, April 2 (Reuters): The White House, feeling the heat over charges that President George W. Bush failed to make terrorism an urgent priority before September 11, yesterday released documents showing that one week before the 2001 attacks he ordered plans for military action against al Qaida.

Portions of a September 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 September 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 Qaida threat before the 9/11 attacks and was fixated on Iraq.

The September 4 presidential directive called on defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld to plan for military options “against Taliban targets in Afghanistan, including leadership, command-control, air and air defence, ground forces, and logistics.”

It also called for plans against al Qaida 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 defence than terrorism in the months before 9/11.

The Post published excerpts of a speech that Rice was to have delivered on the evening of September 11, 2001, that the newspaper said promoted missile defence as the cornerstone of the Bush administration's national security policy.

Al Qaida memo

An alleged al Qaida “planning memo” lists specific nationalities and occupations to be targeted, with Americans and British citizens topping the list, according to a televised report today.

The document, shown on NBC’s Today programme, was described as “a planning memo from al Qaida that lists who terrorists should target.” It ranks nationalities to target by importance, starting with Americans and British, followed by Spanish, Australians, Canadians and Italians, the report said.