WASHINGTON - Two-and-a- half years after assuaging Muslim anger over US President George W. Bush's use of the word "crusade" to describe anti-terror efforts, Secretary of State Colin Powell slipped and allowed the term to re-enter the lexicon.

Secretary of State Colin Powell makes remarks alongside his deputy Richard Armitage as they testify on Capitol Hill, March 23, 2004. Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters

Powell repeated the word as he described US efforts to bring Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on board to topple Afghanistan's Taliban militia and dismantle Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"We gave them 24, 48 hours to consider it and then I called President Musharraf and said: 'We need your answer now. We need you as part of this campaign, this crusade'," Powell recalled in testimony before a commission investigating the attacks.

Bush's original "crusade" comment -- made after the attacks as Washington tried to build a coalition to fight al-Qaeda -- drew winces from Middle East watchers and diplomats who regarded it as impolitic.

It also offended Muslims, many of whom are still riled by the memory of the campaigns by medieval Christian Europe to capture and hold Jerusalem.

The president's remark forced US officials onto the defensive as they sought to convince the Muslim and Arab world that the war on terrorism was not directed at Islam. Officials were then instructed not to use the term.

Asked about Powell's repetition of the word on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher moved to head off any suggestion that the secretary had used the term intentionally or in reference to Islam.

"It doesn't always have its historical meaning attached to it," he told reporters. "It's a word that's in general use in English.

"But there is absolutely no effort directed at Arabs and Muslims," Boucher said.

"This is an effort that we and many Arab and Muslim governments and countries have directed against terrorists who have tried to undermine not only our society, but theirs as well," he said.

© Copyright 2004 AFP

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