A U.S. presidential panel urged closer Western cooperation Thursday to prevent airliner bombings and called for a tough response to nations sponsoring such attacks. Ann McLaughlin, former U.S. labor secretary and head of the commission, said at a news conference that a ``common purpose exists to combat terrorism'' and called for more sharing of information to protect travelers. President Bush created the commission on Aviation, Security and Terrorism in August as a result of the Dec. 21, 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The seven-member panel is traveling through Europe to sound out anti-terrorism policies. At the news conference, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, urged Western governments to strike back at any state proved to be involved in terrorist attacks on aviation. ``We have to let these states know we mean business,'' he said. Investigators have suggested there might be an Iranian connection to the Lockerbie bombing, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground. The jet was bound for New York. In the Sept. 19 bombing of a French UTA jumbo jet over Niger, investigators say they are convinced a Middle Eastern state was involved. French press reports have said it could be Libya. Members of the commission said they did not go into specifics of the UTA crash with French officials. But they said the fact that both nations shared a similar tragedy made their conversations more intensive. Another commission member, Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato, a New York Republican, said U.S. and French officials agreed that security at African airports was a ``gaping hole'' that must fixed. France has announced a $20 million program to improve security at African airports. The UTA flight, in which 170 people died, originated in Brazzaville, Congo and stopped in N'Djamena, Chad. McLaughlin said it was too early to give any indication of what recommendations the group would make to Bush. Their report is due in mid-May. ``We'll come up with something or we will have failed,'' she said. ``We can't leave the impression the terrorists are winning.'' The group visited Charles De Gaulle airport to look at French security measures, baggage handling and passenger check-in procedures. They said they also discussed new technology aimed at examining baggage to search for explosives.
