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WASHINGTON -- President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will be quizzed on a wide range of topics this morning in a historic closed-door meeting with the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, including whether the administration could have done more to combat al-Qaida in early 2001 and whether it should have been better prepared for a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, according to commission officials.

Bush and Cheney are also expected to be questioned closely about the events of the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, several commission officials said. The president and vice president agreed to meet privately with the 10-member panel on the condition that they appear together.

Panel investigators have discovered evidence that casts doubt on several official narratives that emerged about that day. One focuses on early White House statements that Bush initially did not return to Washington on Sept. 11 because he was told the White House received a phone call saying that Air Force One was a target. The caller is said to have used a classified code word, "angel," for the aircraft. The investigators have looked into the story and found no evidence of any such call, according to a source familiar with the staff findings who asked for anonymity because the information was not supposed to be disclosed.

Bush, speaking to reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office, said the interview will focus on "my attitude and the attitude of the vice president about our country, our security, what happened on that particular date, what happened leading up to that."

"I look forward to the discussion," Bush said. "I look forward to giving the commissioners a chance to question both of us. ... It will be a good opportunity for people to help write a report that hopefully will help future presidents deal with terrorist threats to the country."

Panel investigators have assembled a list of questions for Bush and Cheney that commission members have agreed to ask, according to several commission officials. Panel members, who have previously interviewed former president Bill Clinton and former vice president Al Gore, will be free to ask questions on their own, officials said.

"It's essentially the same set of questions that we asked President Clinton with one exception, which is just what happened on the day of September 11th," said commissioner Bob Kerrey, a former Democratic senator from Nebraska. "What was your strategy before, what was your strategy on September 11, and what allowed the FAA to be so surprised by a hijacking?"

Other commission members -- several of whom declined to be identified because they did not wish to discuss the interview publicly -- said that much of the discussion is likely to revolve around conflicting testimony from former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. Clarke has said in testimony and a new book that the Bush administration did not view terrorism as a priority before the attacks. Rice told the commission that the White House was pursuing an al-Qaida strategy that was more aggressive than the Clinton administration's.

Commissioners said another central topic will be the President's Daily Brief delivered to Bush on Aug. 6, 2001. One article in the brief, titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US," warned that the FBI had observed "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks." Bush, who declassified the PDB on April 10, has said the memo did not provide any "actionable intelligence" or specific threat.

"I think the PDB is an important question that will certainly be asked about in some fashion," said commission member Timothy Roemer, a Democrat and former Indiana congressman. "The other briefings and warnings in the spring and summer of 2001 are just as important. ... What did they do about that, and how did they develop policy?"

The commission staff has been unable to find any White House telephone operators who recalled receiving a threat to Air Force One on Sept. 11.

Press secretary Ari Fleischer was the first to announce publicly, on Sept. 12, that there was "specific and credible information that the White House and Air Force One were also intended targets of these attacks." He told reporters the threat explained "why the White House, Air Force One, took the actions that it took," and Bush did not immediately return to Washington.

On Sept. 13, New York Times columnist William Safire, citing White House political adviser Karl Rove, reported that the Secret Service relayed a message the president's aircraft that it was "next." Bob Woodward, in his book "Bush at War," reported that Cheney passed word of the threat to the president.

By Sept. 13, reporters checking with the FBI, the Secret Service and the Pentagon found no confirmation of the threat, although Fleischer said that day, "I think people understand it's credible."

Last month, White House communications director Dan Bartlett told the Wall Street Journal that use of the code word "angel" referring to Air Force One was misinterpreted as a threat.

Today's session comes after months of wrangling between the commission and the White House, which initially refused requests for separate interviews with Bush and Cheney but agreed to a joint session amid mounting political pressure. Neither is expected to testify publicly and, like Clinton and Gore, neither will be interviewed under oath.

The questioning will take place in the White House and is expected to last three to four hours. The White House will not record or transcribe the interviews, in part because much of the discussion will be focused on classified information, administration officials said. The Sept. 11 panel is prohibited from recording the interview, but will be allowed to have one staffer taking notes.

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