The United States on Tuesday issued its annual report to make its own assessment of terrorism across the world.
In the "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report, the US State Department still designated Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Sudan and Syria as "state sponsors of terrorism."
While admitting that there is no evidence about Tehran's involvement in the September 11 attacks, the report still identified Iran as the "most active" terror supporter in 2001.
The seven countries used to be billed by the US as "rogue states," but the former Clinton administration decided to replace the rhetoric with "states of national security concern" about two years ago.
Talking about Southeast Asia, the US praised the Philippines and Malaysia for their anti-terrorism efforts following the September 11 incident but criticized Indonesia for taking only "limited action" in support of anti-terror efforts and being "slow to acknowledge terrorism problems at home."
In the case of South Asia, Washington praised both India and Pakistan for their efforts to fight terrorism.
"General Pervez Musharraf made significant changes to Pakistan's policy and has rendered unprecedented levels of cooperation to support the war on terrorism," the report said.
The report was the first of its kind issued after the September11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2002)
