by Olivier Knox
WASHINGTON, July 21 (AFP) - Warning that terrorists hope to target the United States with chemical and biological arms, US President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed a law aimed at building up vaccines and other countermeasures.
The move came one day before Bush and former president Bill Clinton were expected to face criticism in the final report of the commission investigating the failures that led to the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes.
"Every American can be certain that their government will continue doing everything in our power to prevent a terrorist attack and, if the terrorists do strike, we'll be better prepared to defend our people because of the good law I sign today," Bush said at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.
Senior White House aides including national security adviser Condoleezza Rice were to brief Bush on the bipartisan panel's findings after hearing from its two chairmen a day before they formally hand their report to the president.
"I look forward to receiving their report. I will continue to work with the Congress, the state and local governments, to build on the homeland security improvements we have already made," Bush said.
The panel was expected to criticize the CIA and FBI, and fault both the Bush and Clinton administrations, citing 10 missed opportunities to detect or derail the attacks, according to The Washington Post.
But the commission will stop short of saying the strikes, which left some 3,000 people dead, could have been prevented, the daily said, citing government officials who reviewed the document.
"There's nothing that has come to our attention to suggest that we could have prevented that horrible attack from happening," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
Bush, who trails Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry in recent national polls, has been arguing in campaign speeches that he is better suited to making the United States safer from terrorist attacks.
"This nation refuses to let our guard down," he said at the signing ceremony for Project Bioshield, where he and Vice President Dick Cheney made a rare joint public appearance.
The law authorizes Congress to spend 5.6 billion dollars over 10 years to purchase and stockpile vaccines and drugs to fight anthrax, smallpox, and other potential biological weapons.
The US government is working on acquiring a safer, up-to-date smallpox vaccine; and antidote to botulinum toxin, and better treatments for exposure to chemical and radiological weapons, Bush said.
The initiative, unveiled in Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, was prompted by intelligence reports that al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have been trying to develop or gain access to biological warfare agents.
However, available US defenses have not progressed much since the Cold War, according to administration officials.