The State Department also said that those leaders attending the Non-Aligned summit in Havana would have to decide how productive the meeting is going to be. "Those gathered for the non-aligned summit in Havana are going to decide for themselves how productive this gathering is. We would hope that they would join the vast majority of the world's population in supporting greater freedom, greater democracy, addressing the plight of those who are le ss well off among us all," State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said at his briefing.

He said US President George W Bush [Images] has a vision as to how to go about this and one that has a "fair degree" of support.

"We have a lot of friends who are represented at this meeting -- Indonesia, India, among them, some of the founders of the non-aligned movement. It's a gathering that has its origins in another era. And I think it's really up to the participants and the member states to see what it is that they make of this gathering of heads of state, heads of government and other representatives."

The White House was certainly less expansive than the State Department in talking about NAM. Asked if the President had any comment on the goings on in Havana in a conference that blamed the US and Israel for international terrorism, the Spokesman Tony Snow said no.