September 23rd, 2001 Posted: 1327 GMT

U.S. forces are being positioned to address "a worldwide problem" in an anti-terrorist campaign that could involve strikes on countries besides Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday.

"This is not an Afghan problem; this is a worldwide problem of terrorist networks. And let there be no doubt about it, that al Qaeda network is in at least 60 countries, and they are just one of many networks," Rumsfeld said.

"What we've been doing is getting our capabilities located, positioned, arranged around the world so that at that point where the president decides that he has a set of things he would like done, that we will be in a position to carry those things out," he said.

The show of aerial force is intended to demonstrate Washington's resolve, but US and British officials warned that the "war on terrorism" was not going to be resolved by a few quick air strikes. It would instead be a drawn-out campaign, involving special forces on the ground, which would last years and would have no clear beginning or end.

The president's top security adviser cautioned that "this isn't Pearl Harbor" and that military forces would not be the only weapon in the new war against unconventional enemies.

"This is also of a war of will and mind. It is a war in which information may be the most important asset that we have. So we're asking a lot of countries to help us with information," said National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.