President Clinton yesterday vowed to track down those responsible for bombing the warship USS Cole in Yemen, saying "you will not find a safe harbour".
At a memorial service for the 17 US sailors who died in the Cole explosion, Mr Clinton said the US would not be cowed by the suspected suicide bombing last Thursday.
"To those who attacked them we say: You will not find a safe harbour. We will find you, and justice will prevail," said a sombre Mr Clinton, who consoled family members of the 17 victims. "America will not stop standing guard for peace, or freedom or stability in the Middle East and around the world."
Some of the 85 family members sobbed as Mr Clinton and other top US officials circulated through them offering soothing words of comfort in hushed tones. Some family members wore lapel ribbons in the US navy's blue and gold colours and clutched pictures of those killed in the blast.
The president also visited 32 sailors who survived last Thursday's explosion, which occurred when a smaller boat pressed near the hull of the USS Cole and detonated, ripping a large hole in the advanced warship as it was tying up for refuelling at the port of Aden, Yemen.
Norfolk is headquarters of the US Atlantic Fleet. Mr Clinton's meetings were held at the base's Pennsylvania House, a one-third scale reproduction of Philadelphia's Independence Hall built in 1907.
Mr Clinton's weariness was apparent. He just returned on Tuesday night from a whirlwind trip to the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh where he helped broker a pledge by Israeli and Palestinian leaders to stop the wave of violence that has halted the peace process.
Mr Clinton was accompanied by his daughter Chelsea (20) as well as the Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, Gen Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the National Security Adviser, Mr Sandy Berger, and the Attorney General, Ms Janet Reno.
Seventeen sailors were killed and 39 injured in the Cole explosion. Eleven bodies have been recovered, with another six still missing and presumed dead.
During the memorial service attended by about 5,000 people on a pier, Mr Clinton repeated his vow to hunt down those responsible for the bombing.
"We will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to find those who killed our sailors and hold them accountable," Mr Clinton said in a radio address last Saturday.
The service comes after President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen said he had "important evidence" showing the attack was a criminal act. Mr Saleh initially said the blast was not deliberate.
The FBI director, Mr Louis Freeh, left for Yemen later yesterday to oversee the investigation into the bombing, and the first planeload of evidence linked to the deadly blast was on its way to the FBI laboratory in Washington, US officials said.
The US said yesterday it had indications that people might be planning attacks on US citizens and interests in the Gulf, the Arabian peninsula and Turkey.
In a public announcement, the US State Department said Americans should be careful when considering travel to these areas.