U.S. plans humanitarian airdrop

In an interview aboard his plane en route to Cairo, Rumsfeld told reporters the Bush administration is preparing emergency assistance for Afghanistan, where destitute civilians by the thousands are fleeing in chaos amid fear of U.S. military attack against the ruling Taliban regime.

Rumsfeld said there is no doubt the U.S. military will be involved in delivering aid, probably including airdrops.

"The plan for that is being worked out in Washington as we're here,'' he said as his Air Force jet crossed the Arabian Peninsula on the third leg of a five-nation tour of the Middle East and Central Asia.

Rumsfeld began the day in Riyadh where he had held talks with King Fahd and other Saudi leaders Wednesday night. He flew to Muscat, Oman, for a meeting with Sultan Qaboos in an open tent in the desert, then traveled to Cairo to see Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other officials.

At each stop Rumsfeld took the opportunity to try to counter the notion that President Bush's campaign against terrorism is aimed at Muslims - an idea he said is advanced by terrorists and their sympathizers.

A large humanitarian aid program for Afghanistan - particularly if it includes Air Force planes delivering food to the impoverished and destitute - would dramatize Bush's argument that the United States sees the problem of international terrorism as separate from any religious issue.

Rumsfeld said satellite photos show masses of Afghans fleeing on foot in search of food and refuge.

"It is a heartbreaking thing to see,'' he said.

Rumsfeld said the Pentagon would be careful to design an airdrop that could succeed.

"You wouldn't want the rations to fall into the wrong hands,'' he said, referring to the al-Qaida terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden and the Taliban regime that harbors them.