WASHINGTON, 31 January — US President George W. Bush has warned Americans to guard against tens of thousands of Al-Qaeda followers around the world who were like "ticking time bombs" and branded Iraq, Iran and North Korea "an axis of evil" pursuing weapons of mass destruction. All three states were quick to rebut Bush’s accusation in his nationally televised State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

Bush said the world faces a continuing threat from tens of thousands of followers of Osama Bin Laden, accused by the United States of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on America. The president singled out Iraq, Iran and North Korea as pursuing weapons of mass destruction, calling them "an axis of evil" that could attack US allies or blackmail America.

Bush was set to visit North Carolina, Florida and Atlanta to promote one of the themes of his speech — a call for Americans to donate time to volunteer service. "My call is for every American to commit at least two years — four thousand hours over the rest of your lifetime — to the service of your neighbors and nation," Bush said.

"Through the gathering momentum of millions of acts of service and decency and kindness, I know we can overcome evil with greater good," said Bush, who proposed a new volunteer homeland security corps and expansion of the AmeriCorps and Peace Corps programs.

"We will renew the promise of the Peace Corps, double its volunteers over the next five years and ask it to join a new effort to encourage development, and education and opportunity in the Islamic world," Bush said.

He warned that terrorism was far from over. "Thousands of dangerous killers, schooled in the methods of murder, often supported by outlaw regimes, are now spread throughout the world like ticking time bombs — set to go off without warning," Bush said.

Top Bush aides said the president’s specific mention of Iraq, Iran and North Korea did not mean they were next on the list of targets in the war on terrorism. Those nations were cited because they are the most advanced in developing weapons of mass destruction, the aides said.

Iran said Bush’s remarks smacked of a desire for hegemony, Iraq suggested they presaged a US attack on Baghdad and North Korea saw them as evidence of a "policy of aggression".

"The world will not accept US hegemony," Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi retorted. "The American president had better back up his assertions with evidence instead of repeating old and unfounded claims...Bush intends to divert public opinion from the Middle East issue and to prepare the domestic ground for continuing his support of Israel in its brutal oppression of the Palestinian nation," state radio quoted Kharrazi as saying. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, ridiculed Bush’s remarks. "It is amazing that Bush describes...Iran, Iraq and North Korea as terrorists," he told a gathering of journalists.

"It is possible that Americans will cheer Bush as the congressmen did, but we will not be threatened by such aggressive language," he said.

In Baghdad, a senior Iraqi parliamentarian said the US leader was laying the groundwork for another US assault on Iraq. "Little Bush’s accusation against Iraq is baseless," Salim Al-Qubaisi, head of the Iraqi parliament’s foreign and Arab relations committee, said. "The American administration led by Bush has been threatening Iraq from time to time to prepare world public opinion for a new aggression against Iraq," said Qubaisi.

North Korea’s official media scoffed at Bush for identifying the country as a threat. "The US loudmouthed ‘threat’ from the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is sophism intended to justify its military presence in South Korea and persistently pursue the policy of aggression against the DPRK," said a newspaper commentary.