Lagos — Presidency officials yesterday moved to play down claims that the United States found it "very easy" to blacklist Nigeria in the war against terrorism because of the absence of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua from the country.

THISDAY had reported yesterday that weakening diplomatic relations between Nigeria and the US in the last three years might have compounded issues arising from the failed attempt by a Nigerian to suicide-bomb an American airliner. Nigeria was last Monday listed as a "country of interest" in the US terror list, meaning stiffer screening of US-bound Nigerians.

Todd Moss, vice-president and senior fellow at the Center for Global Develop-ment in Washington DC who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during the Bush administration, had highlighted the US dilemma in article entitled "Where in the World is the Nigerian President?" posted on the web Tuesday. He wrote: "Amid all the media frenzy around the Nigerian underwear bomber and how America should have stopped him before he tried to blow up a passenger plane on Christmas Day, a critical piece to the counter-terrorism puzzle seems to have been missed: where in the world is the Nigerian President? Normally, after such a horrific incident, President Obama would be on the phone with his counterpart, discussing what went wrong and agreeing on ways to work better in the future to prevent such attacks.

But this couldn't happen because Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua left his country for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia on November 23rd and hasn't been seen or heard from since." But Presidency officials yesterday said the US did not make any attempt to speak with Yar'Adua in the aftermath of the failed plot. "If they had made the request, we would have obliged them. There are established processes and procedures for this kind of communication," an official said. He said if President Barack Obama had wanted to speak with Yar'Adua, or the US Vice-President Joe Biden wanted to speak with Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, "they would have been obliged." A request of this is normally channelled via the Nigerian embassy through the USâ-àState Department, and the US Ambassador to Nigeria would have got in touch with the Nigerian foreign minister to facilitate the communication process, the official said.