Mubarak: Too Early for Alliance Against 'Terrorism'

By Jonathan Wright

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites) said on Monday it was too early to talk of an alliance against ''terrorism'' and the United States should think twice before taking military action that would kill civilians.

The United States has proposed an international coalition, with a military component, against those who organized last Tuesday's attacks in Washington and New York.

Mubarak, whose country is a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, said: ``I think the world has a proposal of making a coalition for fighting terrorists, but I could tell you very frankly it's too early to think of this.''

``To attack a country because of some individual, you are going to kill innocent people. We have to be very careful of that,'' he told CNN's Larry King Live program in an interview to be broadcast later on Monday.

``We have to work hard not to be in a hurry, not to jump to conclusions unless you have hard evidence about who did it,'' he added, speaking from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The prime suspect in the attacks is the Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), who is believed to be living under the protection of the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan (news - web sites).

The United States is making preparations for possible military retaliation against bin Laden's organization and has sought access to Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan.

Mubarak said that a campaign against ``terrorism'' must include all countries and that it would not be possible to emulate the Gulf War (news - web sites) alliance against Iraq in 1990-91.

INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION

``We cannot imitate what happened in the Gulf countries, it was another thing. ... A coalition, that means we are going to divide the world into different groups -- groups for fighting terrorists, groups against this group ... then we are going to fight each other without any reason,'' the president said.

U.S. officials have cited the Gulf War coalition as a model for what they are trying to achieve now, especially for their decision to seek cooperation from countries like Syria.

Mubarak said Egypt would prefer to see a U.N. conference agree on an anti-terrorism convention similar to conventions imposing international inspections on nuclear facilities.

A State Department official, asked to comment on Mubarak's reservations, said: ``We don't want to jump to conclusions. We don't want to kill innocent civilians. President Mubarak is expressing a fear that I have heard a lot in the Arab world. We are going to be consulting a lot.''

Mubarak said he had told President Bush (news - web sites) that the Middle East conflict could be an element in the attacks on the United States -- a view shared by most Arabs but ignored by many U.S. leaders, who blame the attacks on irrational hatred.

``I spoke with him about (how) Middle East problems may be one of the elements which encouraged such a thing. So I think he told me he's going to be very active and he's going to do his best,'' Mubarak said.

Mubarak also accused the Israeli government of taking advantage of the situation to attack Palestinians. ``This will have terrible percussions (repercussions),'' he added.