President George W. Bush signed a US-Jordan free trade agreement into law Friday, September 28, hours before welcoming Jordan's King Abdullah II to the White House for talks on combating terrorism, the White House said.
"The president signed privately the free trade agreement this morning," Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. "The president looks forward to discussing various areas of cooperation with the king."
The commercial accord — negotiated under Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton — cleared the US Senate just four days ago, after languishing in the US Congress for nearly one year.
King Abdullah, one of Washington's closest allies in the Middle East, is the first Arab leader to meet with Bush since the September 11 terror strikes that left more than 6,000 people dead or missing in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Bush has been working to rally an international coalition behind US retaliation against Usama Bin Ladin, the Saudi-born militant he blames for the worst attacks on US soil, as well as an open-ended war on global terrorism. ― (AFP, Washington)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
