A Pentagon employee was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman has said.

President George W Bush has signalled he is ready to send more troops to Iraq while acknowledging that US forces had suffered a couple of “tough weeks” in the country.

US President George W Bush has agreed to allow National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to appear before an independent panel investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks following weeks of insisting that she would not testify.