WASHINGTON/KABUL - U.S. President George W. Bush will tell the American people on Tuesday that discoveries in Afghanistan mean that toppling the Taliban is just the start of a wider war on terrorism, the same message that is being trumpeted around the world by his envoys.

In his speech from the House of Representatives chamber, Bush will also identify Iraq, Iran and North Korea as trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. He will warn of the possibility that they could blackmail the United States with nuclear weapons after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons," Bush said in excerpts of his State of the Union address, to be delivered at 9:01 p.m. (0201 GMT on Wednesday), and released by the White House.

"What we have found in Afghanistan confirms that, far from ending there, our war against terror is only beginning," the president will say, citing new intelligence that 100,000 followers of bin Laden went through training camps in Afghanistan and operate in more than 60 nations.

In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on America that killed more than 3,000 people, Bush will say that his top priority is heading off another attack on the United States.

U.S. agencies are preparing security for the World Economic Forum in New York on Thursday, the Super Bowl football game in New Orleans on Sunday and the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City from Feb. 8-24 to protect these high-profile events from potential extremist attacks.

In Washington, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said he believed Osama bin Laden, who Washington accuses of carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks, was still in his country.

The hunt for bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar continued apace and, after a battle at a hospital in Kandahar, soldiers used ropes to drag the corpses of six al Qaeda gunmen from the building in case of booby traps. Six Afghan soldiers were wounded in the assault.

In Afghanistan, the commander of the international security force met the powerful governor of Herat, a western province of Afghanistan, about security concerns and the old national flag fluttered over the capital Kabul for the first time since a 1978 Communist takeover.

In his speech, Bush says America will be "steadfast, patient and persistent" in pursing two objectives in the war: shutting down camps, disrupting plans and bringing suspected terrorists to justice, and preventing "terrorists and regimes who seek chemical, biological or nuclear weapons from threatening the United States and the world."

Bush will reveal the discovery of al Qaeda computers in Afghanistan that had on their hard drives locations of U.S. nuclear power plants and diagrams of U.S. cities.

White House Counselor Karen Hughes said: "He will talk about the fact that we have troops in the Philippines. He will mention Somalia. He will talk about what's ahead without letting our enemies know exactly what he plans to do."

Bush will outline the need to double funding for a "sustained strategy of homeland security, focused on four key areas: bioterrorism, emergency response, airport and border security and improved intelligence."

Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai, American soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and flight attendants who thwarted an alleged shoe-bomber were invited to the important speech.

With the president addressing the nation, Admiral Dennis Blair, commander-in-chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific, outlined his aim for the new arena that has opened in Asia with arrests of suspected militants by Malaysia and Singapore and the arrival of U.S. troops in the Philippines.

"The focus of our activities is to make sure that Asia is not the last bastion of al Qaeda but to make it as inhospitable for terrorists to come here as possible," Blair told a news conference in Singapore.

In Brussels, Francis Taylor, the senior U.S. envoy on counterterrorism, said al Qaeda was quite capable of striking again. "I think you can derive from the arrests going on right now that there are al Qaeda sympathizers, al Qaeda operatives still in Europe,_zzJM9Q%9%Mhed yet.

"I'm not intending to create great panic ... and, yes, we assess that they could a???in the world that they're currently operating, including the United States."

Olympic safety has been a priority since 11 Israelis were killed at the 1972 Munich Games and a bomb blast at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta left one person dead and about 100 injured. "The Winter Olympics pose an enormous security challenge with 17 days of events in 15 venues," Justice Department spokeswoman Barbara Comstock said.

SAUDI LEADER CONDEMNS BIN LADEN AND HIS FOLLOWERS

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, the kingdom's de facto ruler, reaffirmed strong U.S.-Saudi ties but said Washington's position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was indefensible, a charge rejected by the White House.

In a rare interview with The Washington Post and The New York Times, the prince condemned bin Laden and his intention to drive a wedge between the kingdom and the United States.

U.S.-Saudi ties were strained after the United States blamed bin Laden for the Sept. 11 attacks and said that 15 of the 19 suicide hijackers who crashed jets into U.S. landmarks were Saudis. On Monday, Saudi Arabia said 100 Saudi men were among those detained at the U.S. base in Cuba.

Abdullah acknowledged the role of individual Saudis in the Sept. 11 attacks, saying that "a deviant is a deviant, regardless of nationality."

"Bin Laden's objective was to drive a wedge between the kingdom and the United States. He picked young Saudis, and he was able to brainwash them" he was able to program them for an evil cause," Abdullah said.

In Afghanistan, details emerged of the bloody storming of a hospital in Kandahar to flush out six fighters, who refused all negotiation and two ultimatums during a seven-week standoff and who are believed to have been Saudis, Yemenis and Sudanese.

It was a battle at close range, at little more than arm's length. The al Qaeda fought to their last breath against Afghan soldiers and U.S. special forces, an Afghan official said.

There were also more insights into the military operation, with the Canadian government saying its commandos had captured prisoners in Afghanistan and handed them over to U.S. forces.

Amid concerns for regional security, Britain's General John McColl, head of the International Security Assistance Force, had breakfast with Herat governor Ismail Khan in a mansion next to a military base on the city's outskirts.

"I came to speak to Ismail Khan about security," McColl said. Tribal forces in Kandahar province recently threatened to march on Herat after complaints that western tribes were preying on ethnic Pashtun traders from the south and Iran was meddling in the area.

In a symbolic gesture, Afghanistan's old national flag was hoisted over the capital Kabul on Tuesday for the first time since a 1978 Communist takeover that marked the beginning of 23 years of invasion, instability and bloodshed.

Karzai, who visits Britain on Thursday, called last week for the restoration of the national flag, introduced by King Amanullah in 1928 and banned after the Communist takeover. Nampa-Reuters