Company leaders, though, said he was short on specifics.
Bush spoke after discussions between administration officials and executives such as AOL Time Warner chairman Steve Case and Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina.
His comments on high-speed Internet access were met with cheers from an industry battered by the post-Sept. 11 economic downturn and clamoring to deliver the attractive video and music that broadband makes possible.
"This country must be aggressive on the expansion of broadband," Bush said. "It is time for us to move with an agenda."
Several technology trade groups have floated broadband strategy proposals, though executives at the conference said the administration had few concrete proposals.
"What I didn't hear was what exactly the program or mandate that's different" from the previous administration, said John Chen, chairman of the database company Sybase.
But John Thompson of the security company Symantec, who participated in the discussions, said Bush tried "to highlight areas of leadership for him and his administration."
A coalition of consumer groups complained that they were not invited to the conference. The consumer groups have been dismayed by recent FCC decisions on broadband access that they say would lead to higher prices and more power for large cable and telephone companies.
Bush highlighted his income-tax-reduction effort, as well as his administration's push to relax limits on technology exports. He also asked the executives to lobby Congress to grant him the authority to make trade deals that Congress could not alter.
Homeland security was one of the main subjects of the conference. Government officials spoke about efforts to protect the food supply against bio-terrorism attacks and the new plan for a Homeland Security Department.
Also discussed was how to protect computers from electronic attacks and bring more attention to the problem. One idea was to put the issue on the same level as the Year 2000 mobilization effort, which brought a government-wide catalog of vulnerable systems, strong disclosure requirements in the public and private sectors and hard deadlines.
"The fact is there were no solid proposals on homeland security and what the next step is," said George Samanuk, head of the computer security company Network Associates.
Copyright 2002. Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
