The annual report said the Philippines has continued its strong support for the war on terrorism and cooperated closely with US efforts to crush the Abu Sayyaf rebels in the south.
Presenting the report, Secretary of State Colin Powell said nations everywhere recognize "we are all in this together; none of us can combat terrorism alone."
"Even as I speak, terrorists are planning appalling crimes and trying to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction. We cannot and will not relax our resolve, our efforts and our vigilance. We hope that this report will increase public awareness of the historic efforts that we and our partners are making to combat terrorism and to safeguard our citizens against terrorism," he added.
Ambassador Cofer Black, Coordinator for Counter-terrorism, said there were 199 international terrorist attacks in 2002, a 44-percent drop from the previous year and the lowest level of terrorism in more than 30 years.
"The last time the annual total fell below 200 attacks was in 1969, shortly after the advent of modern terrorism. This is a remarkable achievement," he said.
But he warned "we cannot lower our guard. Indeed, the worldwide counter-terrorism coalition must maintain the political will to keep up the fight. The United States remains ready to assist nations to improve their capacity to fight terrorism on various fronts," he said.
The report cited the Netherlands’ effective action to freeze the financial assets of Jose Maria Sison, leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines- New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) at the behest of the US.
In Southeast Asia, it said the US and the Philippines cooperated closely to resolve a hostage crisis involving US citizens and to step up efforts to bring to justice the group responsible, the Abu Sayyaf, which remains on the department’s list of terrorist groups. A US missionary and a Filipino nurse were killed and an American was wounded in the June 2002 rescue attempt.
Many Asian nations actually redoubled their efforts to fight terrorism after the bombing in Bali, Indonesia last October, the deadliest terrorist incident since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, the report said.