• U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking to reporters on Thursday, said that America was deploying military forces to help fight a new war on terrorism, but he cautioned that the conflict would be "a marathon, not a sprint."

• Rumsfeld confirmed that he had signed an order to move U.S. forces in response to Sept. 11's devastating attack on America. Although the secretary declined to identify locations of the troops, Reuters cited defense officials as saying that they were in and near the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan.

• Said Rumsfeld of what is ahead: "It will certainly require the patience of all of us. It also will require a lot of international support, and fortunately that's coming." He continued, "What we're engaged in is something that is very, very different from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Kosovo, Bosnia, the kinds of things that people think of when they use the word 'war,' 'campaign' or 'conflict.' "

• Earlier on Thursday, Islamic clerics urged terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden to voluntarily leave Afghanistan, where he and his followers have had sanctuary for five years, the Taliban news agency said.

• The statement carried by the Bakhtar news agency came at the end of a two-day meeting by hundreds of Islamic clerics who were called to Kabul by the Taliban government to decide about U.S. demands to hand over the Saudi-born suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America.

• The clerics' statement set no deadline for bin Laden to accept or reject the call, and it was unclear whether this would be enough to dissuade President Bush from launching massive military strikes against the impoverished Central Asian nation of Afghanistan.

• President Bush will address a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Thursday to urge Americans to be vigilant and patient as the United States prepares to strike the first blow in what he has called the first war of the 21st century. He is also expected to outline the case against Osama bin Laden, say reports.

• "I think the president is going to use this as an opportunity to talk about the sustained nature of this campaign," White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said. "I think he will use it as an opportunity to urge patience and reason, and to demonstrate again that his resolve is going to be over a long period of time, not in a single moment."