Rice asserts she can't testify 'in principle' at 9/11 commission

US NATIONAL Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is waging a vigorous defence of her actions in every public forum except one: the September 11 Commission where she would be questioned about the government's failure to prevent the terrorist attacks.

Ms Rice declared on Sunday night that "nothing would be better, from my point of view, than to be able to testify" to the commission. But, she added, "there is an important principle involved here: It is a long-standing principle that sitting National

Security Advisers do not testify before the Congress." She has appeared before panel members in closed session.

Interviewed on CBS' 60 Minutes, Ms Rice also said she'd like to meet with the families of the September 11 victims.

"I'd love to meet with (Rice) as long as it's under oath and it's live in front of television cameras," responded Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband Ronald died in New York's World Trade Center.

Rice should "come out and explain what the National Security Adviser knew, didn't know, what kind of information was passed to the president and didn't" get passed, said Lorie Van Auken, widow of another World Trade Center victim.

Commission member John Lehman, a Republican, called the refusal to testify "a political blunder of the first order."

The controversy stemming from the publication of former White House counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke's book is in its second week, complicating President Bush's re-election campaign.

Mr Bush spent a long weekend on his Texas ranch, giving no ground, and several aides said he will not change his mind on letting Rice testify.

Ms Rice acknowledged on Sunday that Mr Bush had asked Mr Clarke at a meeting on the day after September 11 to find out if Iraq had been involved in the terror attacks. The president, she said, was not trying to bully Mr Clarke or force him to give a particular answer.

She offered a rebuttal to criticism by Mr Clarke on NBC's Meet the Press that President Clinton "did something, and President Bush did nothing" before September 11 and that both "deserve a failing grade."

Ms Rice responded: "I don't know what a sense of urgency any greater than the one that we had would have caused us to do differently."