Mr. Bremer, the former administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq said the face of terrorism is very different from that practiced in the 1960s through to the 1980s, when terrorists showed some self-restraint by not pursuing attacks involving massive casualties. Their aim then, he said, was primarily to draw attention to their cause.

The terrorist attack of Sept. 11 "showed the ugly face of the new kind of terrorism we face."

The new brand of terrorism, he continued, is at war with the non-Muslim world. It is a violent revolution that seeks to overthrow the Western world and establish their vision of Islam as the world's dominant culture.

They are, he said, motivated "by a hatred of the West" and its culture.

"These terrorists are prepared to die for their vision and are not deterred by the threat of prosecution," Mr. Bremer observed. "There is no negotiation possible." He added, "We need to confront them wherever we can."

On his Iraq experience, despite all the problems, past and current, the need for regime change was necessary to prevent the possibility that one day suspected weapons of mass destruction could be passed onto terrorists by Saddam Hussein.

"I have no question on the justice of our war," declared Mr. Bremer.

During an interview with National Underwriter at the conference, Mark Ricciardelli, group president and chief executive officer of Hamilton, Bermuda-based reinsurer Alea, responded to a question about Mr. Bremer's assessment of terrorism and the insurance industry's response since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Mr. Ricciardelli, who did not attend Mr. Bremer's talk, but has heard him speak on the subject in the past, said that the good insurers are paying attention to the issue and are continually refining their exposures in the face of it. However, the issue has lost "some velocity" in its importance since Sept. 11, 2001.

For his company's part, Alea has diversified its risks and concentrates its portfolio in small and midsize reinsurance risks, focusing on specialty lines of business. He said the company takes on risks where it can get "good solid data."

In his opening session remarks, Frederick J. de Grosz, 2004 CIAB chairman and president and chief executive officer of ABD Insurance and Financial Services Inc., based in Redwood City, Calif., noted that among the activities of the Washington, D.C.-based association is its continued support of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.