GENERAL PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: Pakistan's President, he seized power in a bloodless military coup two years ago but now finds himself in the position of supporting possible attacks on a fellow Muslim country.
He is a former graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies in Britain, and has a son and
brother who live in the US.
He grew up in Turkey, where his father was a career diplomat, and has reportedly said he wants to be the Kemal Ataturk of Pakistan, emulating the Turkish leader by turning his country into a secular state.
A political moderate, he came to power after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tried to fire him over military support for rebels in the Indian state of Kashmir.
He is thought to have driven very hard bargains in phone conversations with US President George W. Bush in return for his support, including an end to economic sanctions imposed by Washington after Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in 1998.
MULLAH MOHAMMAD OMAR: Probably the most secretive world leader. The one-eyed Taleban cleric and leader of Afghanistan has a striking physique, with a long black beard and a black turban, but there are thought to be no photographs of him. He is shy and withdrawn, a poor public speaker and has not travelled through much of his own country, let alone seen any other.
For the past seven years, he has led a reclusive life bordering on the paranoid.
He fought for the Afghan mujahedin against the Soviets in the 1980s and now leads a group, the Taleban, that is a deeply divided movement with an army, rather than a political party.
He has close links to terrorist Osama bin Laden, who is thought to have introduced him to the wider world of Islamic radicalism. He is unlikely to want to hand bin Laden to the US.
COLIN POWELL: The first African-American Secretary of State, he lived the American Dream - the child of Jamaican immigrants from the Bronx who became a decorated hero in Vietnam and then rose to the pinnacle of the military establishment.
For the past eight months, since President Bush arrived in Washington, Mr Powell has appeared the odd man out; the dove among Republican hawks.
He had been an exceptional soldier, with an aura which among recent leading US figures only Bill Clinton has rivalled.
During the Gulf War, as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, he helped to persuade President George Bush sen not to invade Iraq with ground forces.
Often spoken about as a presidential candidate, he has appeared over-ruled in the Bush Administration. Described as "the chief diplomat for the United States", he is more conciliator than warrior.
DONALD RUMSFELD: US Secretary of Defence. The reaction to last week's bombing has been most visceral from those in charge of the Pentagon, where 188 people were killed. Mr Rumsfeld is one of the hawkish in the Bush cabinet.
The veteran of the Cold War reportedly refused to join the evacuation of the bombed section of the Pentagon, staying with his staff in a dangerously damaged building and assisting with the rescue.
At age 68, he is a veteran Republican official whose Government service dates back to the Nixon Administration.
He served as Defence Secretary under President Gerald Ford, becoming the youngest person to hold that post.
Two years ago, he headed a commission on the missile threat to the United States and is a strong supporter of Mr Bush's missile defence plans. Vice-President Dick Cheney is something of Mr Rumsfeld's prodigy, having served under him in the Ford Administration.
While one of the most controversial and tough members of the inner circle, he is widely considered to be the most likely to advise caution before acting.
CONDOLEEZA RICE: US National Security Adviser. Somewhere in the middle in terms of hawkishness in the Bush cabinet. A former Soviet scholar and expert on international affairs, she worked with George Bush sen.
She tutored George W. Bush on international affairs after the election campaign and now has a close relationship with him.
A black woman in a world of foreign policy dominated by bald, greying white men, she is a steel-willed manager and concert pianist. Conservative, she argues for putting US strategic interests at the centre of all decisions.
DICK CHENEY: US Vice-President. Considered "Bush's brain", Mr Cheney is best known for serving as Defence Secretary where he earned widespread praise for his handling of the Gulf War in 1991.
But he also has seen the White House from the inside as former President Ford's chief of staff at the young age of 34 and having served in Congress for a decade.
Also a bit of a hawk, he has been at the centre of world events for nearly 30 years.
Mr Cheney was at the Pentagon after the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait in August 1990 and oversaw the deployment of forces in the Gulf before and during the subsequent war.
His management made him a popular figure among conservative foreign policy-makers, if not as well-known as Colin Powell.
President Bush has acknowledged that "the man is irreplaceable" and he holds an enormous amount of power on Capitol Hill.
PAUL WOLFOWITZ: The hawkish US Deputy Secretary of Defence. Mr Wolfowitz was summoned back to the Pentagon after holding one of the most esteemed jobs in foreign policy studies, as Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University's school of international studies in Washington. There he honed his uncompromising stance against China and North Korea.
After last week's bombings he set out probably the hardest line when he talked of "removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, and ending states who sponsor terrorism". His threats have been the closest to envisaging total war.
A brilliant military futurologist whose icy calculations are redeemed by a puckish sense of humour, he was Under-Secretary of Defence for Policy during the Gulf War.
He and his boss, Mr Rumsfeld, are a formidable team, a duo of like-minded hardliners that was winning the foreign and defence policy argument in Washington.
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GENERAL PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: Pakistan's President, he seized power in a bloodless military coup two years ago but now finds himself in the position of supporting possible attacks on a fellow Muslim country.
He is a former graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies in Britain, and has a son and
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