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Bush Heads to APEC Meeting in China
U.S.President Bush headed to APEC Meeting in China to strengthen the coalition behind his war on terrorism Wednesday.
There, Bush will hold talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
The four-day trip overseas is Bush's first since the devastating Sept. 11 attacks and, as anthrax exposure led to an unprecedented shutdown of the U.S. House, he acknowledged: ``I leave at a very difficult time.''
The trip ¡ª with its trade-focused agenda ¡ª is too important to cancel, Bush said.
``The terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and we will defeat them by expanding and encouraging world trade,'' he said.
Bush made a brief California stopover designed to rally U.S. troops, struggling businesses and jittery Americans everywhere.
The Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting will take Bush out of the country while U.S. military forces strike Afghanistan. Several APEC nations harbor or are hindered by terrorist organizations ¡ª including Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia ¡ª and could become the focus of any U.S. campaign beyond the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
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