WASHINGTON - The United States is not now contemplating joint military operations with Russia in the war on terrorism but such cooperation remains an option for the future,
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said.

Returning to Washington early Thursday after a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, he said U.S. cooperation with Russia was ``more important than ever'' since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon two weeks ago that left nearly 7,000 people dead or missing.

A private discussion on the fringes of the NATO meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was almost entirely about counter-terrorism efforts ``and clearly they (Russians) were ready to offer all kinds of help, advice, cooperation,'' Wolfowitz said.

Possible joint NATO-Russian operations is ``ahead of where we are, but it's certainly not closed'' as an option, he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin this week offered Washington broad anti-terrorism support, including opening Russian air space to relief missions, taking part in search-and-rescue operations and arming forces opposed to the hard-line Islamic Taliban group that controls most of Afghanistan.

The United States has named Saudi exile Osama bin Laden and his network of Islamic militants known as al Qaeda (''the base'') as the prime suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks by hijacked jetliners in New York and Washington.

Wolfowitz spoke with reporters on his airplane after a day of meetings at NATO headquarters.
In Brussels, he briefed the 19 allies and later, the allies with Russia added, on U.S. plans for a sweeping and multilayered campaign to wipe out extremist networks accused of terrorist activity against the United States and the West.

Moscow perceives ``terrorists'' in Afghanistan as threatening ex-Soviet regimes in Central Asia and thereby posing a threat to Russia, Wolfowitz said.

``I think they see real opportunity to work with us in dealing with something that threatens them as well. I think they also see an opportunity to work with us period,'' he said.

Because terrorism is a ``common interest it's not something where one side should expect to get paid for the cooperation of the other side,'' he added, apparently ruling out trade-off deals with Moscow that have been rumored.

Wolfowitz explained to NATO why the Bush administration is so convinced al Qaeda is responsible -- albeit ``not necessarily exclusively responsible'' -- for the Sept. 11 attacks.

``A lot of what I told them is simply in the public record,'' he said.

He also emphasized that ``while there is a lot that we know (about bin Laden and al Qaeda), there is a lot that we don't know,'' such as how the hijackers carried out such a sophisticated operation and who else was involved.

Wolfowitz said there is a lesson to be learned from the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center when officials closed the case ``and maybe tied a ribbon around it too soon.''

``So it's very important not to too quickly conclude that you have the whole picture, because that's one of the things they (extremists) want you to do. We have part of the picture (on the Sept. 11 attacks). We're absolutely sure of that but do we have the whole one? No,'' he said.