By SCOTT LINDLAW
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Former Gen. Wayne A. Downing was retired in Colorado, spending his time trout fishing after a 34-year career in the Army. He told the government, "I'll never come back unless it's a national emergency."

The Bush administration reminded him of his offer after the Sept. 11 attacks. On Tuesday, Downing reported to the White House for his new job as deputy national security adviser for combatting terrorism.

"We intend to exert unrelenting pressure on global terrorism and on the nations and the groups that support global terrorism wherever we can find them, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year," Downing said at a ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. "We intend to give these people and those who support them no place to hide."

President Bush also promoted Richard Clarke to the newly created position of special adviser for cyberspace security.

Clarke has served as counterterrorism chief at the White House for more than a decade. He was appointed by President Clinton as the first national coordinator for security, infrastructure protection and counterterrorism.

Clarke warned Congress, businesses and local agencies last year about the potential for a "digital Pearl Harbor" in which a terrorist attack would paralyze computers, electrical grids and other key infrastructure.

Several nations have created information-warfare units, creating technology to bring down computer networks, Clarke said in December.

"Our economy, our national defense, increasingly our very way of life depends on the secure and safe operation of critical infrastructure. That in turn depends on cyberspace," Clarke said.

Bush also plans to create a government-wide board that will coordinate the protection of "critical information systems," a body that Clarke will head.

Clarke will be responsible for coordinating efforts to restore information systems in the event of an attack.

"Protecting this infrastructure is critically important," said new homeland security chief Tom Ridge. "Disrupt it, destroy it or shut it down, these information networks, and you shut down America as we know it, as we live it, as we experience it every day."

Clarke and Downing will report to Ridge and Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security advisor.