WASHINGTON - The United States says it may take pre-emptive action in the next phase of its war on terror, ratcheting up the rhetoric that has alarmed Iraq and Iran.
"The best defence is a good offence," US Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz told a security conference in Munich, elaborating on a theme set by President George W. Bush last week when he called Iran, Iraq and North Korea the "axis of evil".
"Our approach has to aim at prevention and not merely punishment," said Wolfowitz, a hawk in the Bush Administration. "We are at war."
Iraqi newspapers at the weekend condemned "the dwarf Bush" as savage and aggressive and Iranian parliamentarians called him a threat to world peace and security.
In Afghanistan, where the United States launched its war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, fresh fighting erupted between factions scrambling for advantage in the vacuum left by the vanquished Taleban.
About 40 men were reportedly killed in clashes in parts of the northern Afghan province of Balkh.
The battles flared a day after a local Pashtun tribal council in the southeastern town of Gardez ousted the town's governor appointed by the interim government in Kabul.
The clashes are seen as a setback for interim leader Hamid Karzai's attempts to bring peace following more than two decades of war - including the US-led campaign to crush the Taleban and the al Qaeda members they sheltered.
In recent weeks Bush has switched his focus in public speeches from finding al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to preventing countries like Iran, Iraq and North Korea acquiring nuclear, chemical or germ weapons.
Wolfowitz said the United States had no specific targets, "but the President has made clear where the problems are".
The fate of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped in Pakistan while covering the war on terrorism, remains a mystery.
Conflicting messages on Saturday, supposedly from his kidnappers, said Pearl had been killed but also demanded the release of a top Taleban prisoner held by the United States and payment of $US2 million ($4.79 million) in ransom.
"Based on reports from Pakistan we now believe that both of the messages received yesterday about Danny were false," the Wall Street Journal said yesterday. "We continue to believe that Danny is alive."
In Washington, Bush plans to propose a $379 billion ($908 billion) Pentagon budget, including $US9.4 billion to battle terrorism, plus extra money for weapons procurement, training and a pay raise for troops.
The proposal, part of a $US2.13 trillion federal budget that the President will release tomorrow, provides the first detailed glimpse of how Bush will prioritise defence spending. He and other Administration officials already have said defence, domestic security and the economy will be the three top priorities of his spending plan.
Bush's plan calls for an increase of $US45 billion, or 13.5 per cent, over this year's defence total.
A document obtained by a news agency said: "The budget fulfils President Bush's pledge to win the war against terrorism, defend America and its people, improve quality of life for our men and women in uniform and accelerate a bold transformation of the US military to counter 21st-century threats."
The proposal, like the rest of the budget, will be considered by Congress. But with a war against terror under way and troops in Afghanistan, lawmakers probably will support defence increases, even as federal deficits return.
- REUTERS
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