"We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile ... in the direction of Hawaii," Gates told a news conference.

The defense secretary said he had approved the deployment of THAAD missile defense weaponry to the US state and radar "to provide support" in case of a possible North Korean missile attack.

And he said that ground-based defenses in Alaska were also at the ready.

"I would just say I think we are in a good position should it become necessary to protect American territory," he said.

The Theatre High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weaponry is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles.

US and South Korean officials have said North Korea might be readying another ballistic missile test after three previous launches in 1998, 2006 and this year.

Pyongyang said its latest April 5 launch put a satellite into orbit, while the United States and its allies labeled it a disguised test of a Taepodong-2 missile theoretically capable of reaching Alaska.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have mounted after Pyongyang carried out its second nuclear test last month.

On Saturday, the North vowed to build more atomic bombs and start enriching uranium for a new nuclear weapons program, in response to new UN sanctions.

The UN financial and shipping sanctions are designed to choke off revenue and disrupt transfers of arms and nuclear technology in and out of North Korea.

The measures do not authorize military force to board North Korean ships, but allow for the US Navy and its allies to ask to inspect North Korean vessels and ships flagged from other countries suspected of carrying banned cargo.

US media reported on Thursday that the US Navy was tracking a flagged North Korean ship suspected of ferrying banned weapons cargo in violation of the UN Security Council resolution adopted last week.

The ship, Kang Nam, departed a port in North Korea on Wednesday and appears to be heading toward Singapore, according to media reports.

Analysts say North Korea could sidestep the shipping sanctions by transporting banned cargo by air or exploiting the wording of the UN resolution which does not approve the use of military force.

The Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun meanwhile reported on Thursday that Tokyo's defense ministry believes that North Korea might now be planning to launch a two-stage or three-stage Taepodong-2 missile towards either Japan's Okinawa island, Guam or Hawaii.

But the ministry said launches toward Okinawa or Guam were "extremely unlikely" because the first-stage booster could drop into waters off China, agitating Beijing, or hit western Japanese territory, the report said.

If the missile were fired in the direction of Hawaii, the booster could drop in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) well before the missile's remaining part flies over northern Japan and towards North America.

"Over one year has passed since the IAEA began investigating Syria's clandestine nuclear activities related to the destroyed reactor at Dair Alzour," US deputy chief of mission, Geoffrey Pyatt, told a closed session of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board.

"Regrettably, Syria has not used this time to resolve the lingering questions about the reactor and the associated facilities... Instead, the agency's list of questions is growing," Pyatt said.

Damascus had "chosen to hinder the agency's efforts, he said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is investigating US allegations that Syria had been building a secret nuclear reactor at a remote desert site -- known alternatively as Dair Alzour or Al-Kibar -- until it was bombed by Israeli planes in September 2007.

Damascus denies the allegations and claims the site was a disused military facility.

But it has only allowed IAEA inspectors to visit the site once, and has turned down requests for follow-up inspections and access to a number of other sites.

The IAEA has already said that the building had characteristics of a nuclear facility and UN inspectors had detected "significant" traces of man-made uranium at that site, as yet unexplained by Damascus.

In its latest report on Syria, the IAEA said inspectors had now found uranium particles at a second site -- a research reactor near Damascus -- that would not normally be expected there.

It was too early to say whether the uranium particles at the two sites were connected, according to the IAEA.

But the agency has more or less ruled out Syria's claim that the uranium at Dair Alzour came from Israeli bombs.

"We call on Syria to cooperate fully with the agency without delay to address all unresolved questions," US diplomat Pyatt said.

"We must understand why (the uranium particles) -- material that was not previously declared to the IAEA -- was detected at two facilities in Syria, one of which was being constructed clandestinely."

The Guard Corps, or Pasdaran as it is known in Farsi, has established a parallel authority in the Islamic Republic over the last few years, giving it wide-ranging political and economic power to a degree that surpasses that held by the military in other authoritarian states in the region.

By keeping Ahmadinejad, one of their own, in the presidency, the Pasdaran will ensure that the immense military, political and economic power it has amassed in recent years also remains intact -- and a constant threat to Iran's neighbors.

The 125,000-strong Guard Corps was formed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 as an ideologically pure force to protect the infant Islamic regime following the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

It soon became the regime's muscle and was largely responsible for repelling Saddam Hussein's army when it invaded in September 1980. Over the eight years of war that ensued, the Pasdaran became known for its suicidal determination and was hailed as the savior of the republic.

Ahmadinejad, a revolutionary hard-liner, was a Pasdaran field commander during that war, often operating behind enemy lines. When he was first elected in 2005, he appointed senior officers of the corps to key positions in the government, in particular the Interior and Intelligence ministries, whose pervasive networks dominate life in Iran.

Dozens won election to Parliament with the support of Ahmadinejad's government and the financial and political support of the corps. Before Ahmadinejad's 2005 victory, the Pasdaran had been steadily taking control of whole sectors of the economy.

After 2005, it became an economic powerhouse that was handed huge government contracts in construction, engineering, transportation and the all-important energy sector.

The corps' critics say it also runs illegal ports through which pass an estimated one-third of Iran's total imports -- without any state scrutiny.

According to various accounts, the Pasdaran now controls at least one-third of the economy. Critics say that as much as $46 billion has vanished over the years, with much of it being used to fund proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The corps' treasury is used to finance its military programs. These include Iran's controversial nuclear program and ballistic missile forces, both of which it controls.

In 2008 the Guard Corps was given the mission of protecting Iran's coastal regions on the Gulf against U.S. or Israeli attack.

That put serious decision-making authority and military firepower in the hands of the Pasdaran should current tensions with the United States or Israel spill over into conflict.

But, possibly more worrying than that is the fact that the Pasdaran's wealth is used to finance its clandestine operations outside the country, in Iraq, the Gulf and the Levant. Since 2006 Hezbollah and Hamas have both blunted Israeli military offensives aimed at eliminating them.

The corps' elite Al-Quds Force, which conducts clandestine operations outside Iran, has become extremely active. In the event of conflict it would be the regime's strike arm against U.S. and Israeli interests on a global scale.

"The striking influence that the Guard Corps gained beyond Iran's borders in the four years of President Ahmadinejad's presidency, especially in Iraq, is arguably one of the main factors that established the position of Iran as a decisive player in the region, threatening the authority of the United States," says Canadian-Iranian analyst Shahir Shahidsaless, who has written extensively on Iran and the Middle East.

All this gives the Pasdaran a big stake in maintaining Ahmadinejad as president, by subduing and crushing the current upheaval in Iran over his disputed June 12 re-election, and ensuring that the fundamentalist regime headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remains in place.

"It is widely believed that only an exclusive group of individuals, including Â… Khamenei, have been in the loop of dealings with the Guards' finances," Shahidsaless observed. "This would make it very costly for the corps if an outsider came to power Â…

"No one knows better than the exclusive group which deals with the secret projects of the corps how costly and risky it would be to let a team of strangers taker over the administration."

After years of rumours, the issue hit the headlines this week when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised fears of possible nuclear and other military cooperation between Stalinist North Korea and military-ruled Myanmar.

"We know that there are growing concerns about military cooperation between North Korea and Burma, which we take very seriously," Clinton said after talks with Thai premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, using Myanmar's former name.

Clinton, visiting Thailand for Thursday's Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum on security, also told the country's Nation TV that "we worry about the transfer of nuclear technology."

Suspicions of military links grew after a US navy destroyer last month began tracking a suspect North Korean ship reportedly heading for Myanmar. The cargo ship later turned back.

The Kang Nam 1 was the first ship to be shadowed since the UN Security Council in June slapped tougher sanctions on the North to try to shut down its nuclear and missile programmes.

The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) has for years been watching for signs of nuclear projects in Myanmar.

"We have found no evidence of work by Burma on any major nuclear projects ... but we are suspicious about some of Burma's activities," its president David Albright told AFP in emailed comments.

Albright cited the presence in Myanmar for at least the past two years of North Korea's Namchongang Trading Corp. (NCG), or people associated with the company.

NCG was the key North Korean entity assisting a Syrian reactor project that was bombed by Israel in 2007, Albright said. It was one of five North Korean entities targeted in another round of UN sanctions last week.

One Seoul-based analyst said it could make sense for Myanmar to get into the nuclear business.

"Myanmar would feel the temptation to get nuclear weapons to enhance the prestige of the military junta and fend off international pressure over its human rights," said Jeung Young-Tae of the Korea Institute for National Unification.

Myanmar's purchases of dual-use equipment including machine tools from Europe in 2006 and 2007 raised suspicions, Albright said.

"The end-use declarations are inconsistent and the equipment ... is odd for Burma to acquire. However, its potential use is hard to determine," he said.

Albright also cited Myanmar's past interest in buying a reactor from Russia. The project stalled due to foreign protests and supposed lack of money, raising the possibility that it may turn to North Korea.

Concrete evidence is lacking.

"Over the last two years, we have analysed many photos of sites acquired by opposition groups, but we found that none of them had any convincing nuclear signatures despite the claims of these groups," Albright said.

Baek Seung-Joo, of the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses, said the Southeast Asian state has no particular reason to crave such technology.

"It has no hostile nuclear-armed neighbours. It has no direct threats from China, India or Pakistan."

However, Baek said Myanmar has a strong need for the North's conventional military equipment.

Indications of a Yangon link to the North's lucrative missile business emerged in June when Japanese police arrested three men for trying to export dual-use equipment to Myanmar via Malaysia.

The equipment, a magnetometer, can be used in missile guidance and control systems.

Daniel Pinkston, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said Myanmar seems to lack the human resources to run a nuclear programme and there is no hard evidence of one.

"If it is starting at a very low level of development, North Korea could provide a lot of help covering the basics and training personnel," he said.

"The most important thing in any nuclear programme is the human resources."

The nuclear complex is hidden inside a mountain at Naung Laing, in Myanmar's north, and runs parallel to a civil reactor being built at another site by Russia, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The revelations come just weeks after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced concerns that Pyongyang was transferring weapons and nuclear technology to fellow pariah state Myanmar.

Defectors codenamed Moe Jo and Tin Min reportedly told Australian investigator Desmond Ball the military junta has nuclear ambitions that far exceed its official line.

"They say it's to produce medical isotopes for health purposes in hospitals," Ball said Tin Min told him, talking about the prospect of a Myanmar nuclear programme.

"How many hospitals in Burma have nuclear science?" Tin Min allegedly said, referring to Myanmar by its former name. "Burma can barely get electricity up and running. It's a nonsense."

Giving an account of the men's testimony in the Herald, Ball said they "claim to know the regime's plans" and that a nuclear-armed Myanmar was a "genuine possibility".

"In the event that the testimony of the defectors are proved, the alleged secret reactor could be capable of being operational and producing one bomb a year, every year, after 2014," Ball, a strategic studies professor from the Australian National University, wrote in the newspaper.

Moe Jo, a former army officer, allegedly told Ball he was trained for a 1,000-man "nuclear battalion" and that Myanmar had provided yellowcake uranium to North Korea and Iran.

"He said that the army planned a plutonium reprocessing system and that Russian experts were on site to show how it was done," Ball wrote.

Moe Jo said part of the army's nuclear battalion was stationed in a local village to work on a weapon, and a secret operations centre was hidden in the Setkhaya Mountains, according to Ball.

"(It was) a set up including engineers, artillery and communications to act as a command and control centre for the nuclear weapons program," wrote Ball.

Tin Min was said to have been a book keeper for Tay Za, a close associate of the junta's head General Than Shwe, and told Ball in 2004 he had paid a construction company to build a tunnel in the Naung Laing mountain "wide enough for two trucks to pass each other".

According to the report, Tin Min said Za negotiated nuclear contracts with Russia and North Korea and arranged the collection and transport, at night and by river, of containers of equipment from North Korean boats in Yangon's port.

Tin Min reportedly said Za told him the junta knew it couldn't compete with neighbouring Thailand on conventional weapons, but wanted to "play power like North Korea".

"They hope to combine nuclear and air defence missiles," Za said, according to Tin Min.

That assertion, initially made to Jane's Defense Weekly and reiterated at a U.S. Army-sponsored missile defense conference in Huntsville, Ala., on Aug. 20, intensified concerns that Iran has stepped up its drive to acquire ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

On the face of it, Rubin's comments gave weight to Israeli fears that Iran will soon pose an existential threat to the Jewish state.

Israeli leaders have been pressing the United States to take firmer action to ensure that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons and have suggested unilateral pre-emptive strikes if something is not done soon to curb Tehran.

Rubin masterminded the development of Israel's Arrow anti-missile system, the top layer of the country's emerging multilayered missile defense shield, from 1991 to 1999.

He said that the two-stage Sejil-2 has an estimated range of 1,560 miles, not 1,250 miles as previously thought, and that the successful testing of a solid-fueled missile on May 20 was a major breakthrough for Iran.

This was because unlike the Shehab-3, Iran's operational ballistic missile already deployed with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Sejil uses solid propellant rather than the less reliable liquid fuel. It is the first Iranian missile to do so, opening the door for more advanced technology.

Rubin did not specifically say that the Iranians would have produced a nuclear warhead for the Sejil-2 in the timeframe he cited. But Israeli officials have claimed that Tehran could produce a nuclear warhead within a year once Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gives the go-ahead.

In May, 12 prominent U.S. and Russian analysts gave a different view in a report issued by the EastWest Institute, a New York-based think tank that monitors global security issues.

The report said it would take Iran six to eight years to develop a ballistic missile with a 460-pound conventional warhead and a range of 1,250 miles, and six years to develop a nuclear warhead.

The U.S. Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center said in a June report that Iran, even with help from foreign sources, would need six years to produce an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States.

"Based on its demonstrated achievement in solid propulsion and staging, Iran will face no technological challenges" in doubling the Sejil's range with a 1-ton warhead, Rubin told the Huntsville conference.

"If they push it -- put all the budget, put all the engineers -- three or four years" is all it would take to give the Sejil a range of around 2,500 miles, enough to hit London. "Will they do it? I'm not sure."

But he noted that the predictions about Iran's ever-growing missile reach "are coming true, perhaps sooner than anyone thought. Â… I think there was an underestimation of Iranian capability."

Rubin's conclusions would appear to inject a new urgency in U.S. efforts to install a fixed missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic to protect the United States, a proposal that has drawn vehement objections from Moscow.

In that regard, on Aug. 20 the Boeing Co. came up with a novel system that may overcome Russian opposition to U.S. missile installations on its doorstep: 10 47,500-pound mobile interceptors that could be airlifted in giant Boeing C-17 transports to temporary launch sites and then flown back to the United States when no longer required.

Brussels and the German government in Berlin are positive about backing "massive boycotts" against Iran if Tehran doesn't show signs of cooperation in the nuclear conflict, German news magazine Der Spiegel reports.

Diplomats are mulling several measures, including a stop of fuel deliveries to Iran and further limitations for maritime and air transport from the Islamic Republic to the EU. If China and Russia don't agree to sanctions in the U.N. Security Council, the EU would be willing to take bilateral measures together with the United States, the magazine writes, citing senior German diplomats.

The report comes as Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again attacked the West for its protest related to the post-election violence in the Islamic Republic.

"You have clearly interfered in Iran's internal affairs and were naive enough to think that you can damage the system but with God's help you failed," Ahmadinejad said Sunday according to Deutsche Welle, in comments directed at Western powers. "You will be held accountable for this ballyhoo you made in the world."

The EU and the United States have in the past weeks harshly protested against the crackdown on opposition demonstrators following Ahmadinejad's controversial June 12 re-election. European nations have not acknowledged the election results (Russia has) and are on a diplomatic confrontation course with Ahmadinejad, who is deeply unpopular in Europe. Over the past weeks, the 27 EU member states summoned their ambassadors more than once; the most recent protests came when Iran staged what many say is a show trial against 100 detained demonstrators. Germany has called for their release.

Tehran has in turn accused the West of fueling the riots; Ahmadinejad has even accused Britain of sending in spies. The clashes between authorities and protesters have left 26 people dead -- Iran's biggest internal conflict since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

In a more positive development, authorities in Iran released from jail a French woman who was held for six weeks on charges linked to the post-election violence.

Clotilde Reiss was released on bail but remains accused of fueling the protest and espionage; she is now at the French Embassy in Tehran and has to stay there until a verdict is reached. The European Union and Syria mediated the release.

"Time is running out for this year's session of the CD," said ambassador Christian Strohal, who also represents Austria.

"The window of opportunity to achieve a consensual approach.... is closing - and in all seriousness it is closing today," he added.

"If we still were to embark on a meaningful implementation of our Programme of Work, we would need to take a decision now," he added.

Pointing out that consensus "still eludes us", he closed the session for the day after none of the 65 members sought to intervene.

The Conference on Disarmament's current and last session of 2009 ends on September 18. It traditionally resumes work in January.

Given the lack of time however, Strohal said it was best to move on to other business the conference needed to attend to over the coming weeks.

The talks include the world's major nuclear powers as well as recent atomic weapons states like India, Pakistan and North Korea and those with a nuclear research capability.

In May, they broke more than a decade of deadlock by agreeing on a work plan for 2009.

That included full "negotiations" on an international ban on the production of new nuclear bomb-making material, and talks on nuclear disarmament, the arms race in outer space, and security assurances for non-nuclear states.

But some diplomats blamed Pakistan for openly stalling the conference on a procedural issue.

Pakistan cited unspecified national security concerns to justify its refusal to accept part of the proposed structure for the talks.

Other member states, including Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States had signalled their broad acceptance of the proposal.

"Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted to enter into completion phase," the communist state's official Korean Central News Agency said.

"Reprocessing of spent fuel rods is at its final phase and extracted plutonium is being weaponised," the agency quoted its permanent representative to the United Nations as saying.

"We are prepared for both dialogue and sanctions," the representative was quoted as saying in a letter Thursday to the president of the UN Security Council.

The North for years denied it was operating a secret enriched uranium bomb-making programme in addition to its admitted plutonium-based operation.

But a day after the UN imposed tougher sanctions in June following its May 25 nuclear test, the North vowed to start an enriched uranium programme and to extract plutonium from the fuel rods at its Yongbyon reactor.

The North's UN representative said he was responding to a letter from the world body's sanctions committee "requesting a clarification."

No details were given. UN diplomats said last month that the United Arab Emirates had seized a ship carrying North Korean weapons to Iran and had informed the sanctions committee.

The North in its letter said it would never be bound by Resolution 1874 passed June 12, which imposed the tighter sanctions and authorised UN members to search ships suspected of carrying banned weapons.

"We do not feel, therefore, any need to respond to the request made by the UNSC 'committee'," it said, terming the resolution unfair.

The North said that if some Security Council members continue to put sanctions before dialogue, it would be forced "to take yet stronger self-defensive countermeasures" -- an apparent reference to a third nuclear test or a new long-range missile launch.

Pyongyang quit six-nation nuclear disarmament talks after the UN censured its April 5 rocket launch, and vowed to restart its bomb-making programme based on plutonium.

It staged its second nuclear test the following month.

As the United States presses for tough enforcement of Resolution 1874, the North has begun making a series of conciliatory gestures.

In August it freed two US journalists and five South Koreans, eased border crossings with the South, sent representatives to talks in Seoul and expressed willingness for direct discussions with Washington to end the nuclear standoff.

The North said Friday it had never objected to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula but the six-way talks had been used to "violate outrageously" its sovereignty.

"The denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula is closely related with the US nuclear policy toward the DPRK (North Korea)," it added.

The United States says bilateral talks must be held in the six-party context. Its envoy on North Korea Stephen Bosworth is visiting the region for talks aimed at restarting the six-party process.

In a relatively mildly-worded statement, the North blamed its second nuclear test on the UN's "high-handed" criticism of its April 5 rocket launch.

It says the launch put a peaceful satellite into space, while the United States and others saw a disguised long-range missile test.

The North complained that the UN had failed to censure South Korea for its rocket launch last month, which involved an unsuccessful satellite launch.

Seoul plays down NKorea's conciliatory gestures
South Korea on Wednesday played down a series of peace overtures from North Korea, saying the communist state is still unwilling to resume talks on giving up its nuclear weaponry.

Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek noted the North's conciliatory moves in recent weeks after months of hardline actions, including numerous missile launches and a nuclear test.

"But I believe it was a tactical, not fundamental, change because nothing has changed in its attitude toward six-party talks and the nuclear issue," Hyun told a seminar with ruling party lawmakers.

After reaching a six-party disarmament deal in 2007, the North quit the forum in April in protest at the UN Security Council's decision to censure its long-range rocket launch that month.

In May it staged its second nuclear test, incurring international anger and tougher UN sanctions.

The policy change became noticeable in early August when former US president Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang and met leader Kim Jong-Il, who pardoned two American journalists sentenced to jail for illegal entry.

The North has since released five detained South Koreans, lifted border restrictions on its neighbour and agreed to allow more reunions for families divided since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

It sent envoys to Seoul last month for talks with President Lee Myung-Bak on improving relations.

On Wednesday the two sides restored a military hotline in the west of the peninsula.

Minister Hyun said recent developments have put inter-Korean relations only back to where they were.

"I don't see the North's moves as a sign they have altered their stance," he said. "The measures have only returned things back to normal."

North Korea is keen to hold bilateral discussions with Washington on ending the nuclear standoff. The US says such talks must be held within the six-nation framework, which also groups China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

US envoy Stephen Bosworth will arrive in Seoul on Friday as part of his Asia trip aimed at ending the nuclear standoff, Yonhap news agency said, quoting diplomatic sources.

The envoy and Sung Kim, another US pointment on North Korea, will also visit Japan and China, it said. The South's foreign ministry declined to confirm the report.

Some analysts say the North's latest goodwill gestures may aim to undermine international efforts to enforce the UN sanctions.

Hyun restated his call for the North to denuclearise during a forum later in the day on possible peaceful uses for the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which splits the peninsula.

"Discussion on the peaceful use of the DMZ will gain momentum when the fundamental security threat of North Korean nuclear weapons disappear from the Korean peninsula," he said.

"We should discuss joint projects in the DMZ through dialogue" between the two governments, Hyun said.

The four-kilometre-wide (2.5-mile) zone, undeveloped for more than half a century, has become an ecologically rich area.

A visiting US congressman told the forum it was up to North and South to remake the zone.

"Nature has already taken its stand, marking the DMZ as a treasured ecological site and wildlife sanctuary where species once endangered now flourish," said Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin Faleomavaega, chairman of a house environmental subcommittee.

"From nature, we might learn what the DMZ can become," he said.

"Despite thirty years of military sanctions by the enemy, the armed forces have taken appropriate steps toward self-sufficiency," Brigadier General Ahmad Miqani, who heads Iranian army's air defence office said.

"Today, we are able not only to identify stealth cruise missiles, but also to destroy them," he added, without elaborating.

Miqani said Iran was also improving its "existing defence system, constructing tens of anti-aircraft artillery pieces... and active and passive radars."

In May, Iran said it had launched a production line to manufacture cannons for warships which can be used against cruise missiles.

Iran has boasted in the past of developing new weapons systems only for its claims to be met with scepticism by Western defence analysts.

Top military commanders have often said that Iran has developed missiles which can reach any corner of arch-foe Israel.

Ties between Iran and Israel have deteriorated since the first term of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Hezbollah getting its hands on such weapons is a "red line" for the Israelis, whose jets and surveillance drones violate Lebanese air space just about every day despite international protests.

While there has been no independent confirmation that Hezbollah has received chemical arms or that the Lebanese army is about to receive Iranians missiles, the reports have heightened tension in a region where both sides are braced for conflict.

Hezbollah has maintained an ambiguous silence about the report it has had chemical weapons since December 2008, which have been reportedly stored in the Bekaa Valley in northeastern Lebanon, Hezbollah's heartland, and in the south, the main zone of conflict with Israel.

That report was published Thursday by Kuwait's al-Seyasseh newspaper, which opposes the Shiite organization and its mentors, Iran and Syria.

The daily quoted unnamed Western intelligence sources as saying that a suspected Hezbollah arms dump in the southern village of Khirbet Selim that blew up under mysterious circumstances July 14 contained chemical arms.

At least three Hezbollah members died from chemical contamination caused by the explosion, the sources were quoted as saying.

Al-Seyasseh reported that U.N. peacekeepers in south Lebanon found traces of chemical residue in soil samples taken from the site.

The U.N. force has made no comment. But the Israelis have long suspected that Hezbollah, heavily outnumbered and outgunned by Israel's military, was seeking to acquire chemical weapons, as well as air-defense missiles to challenge Israel's long-held aerial dominance.

Despite the alarming reports, Israeli analysts were skeptical that Hezbollah would actually use chemical weapons against the Jewish state.

"Chemical weapons are a doomsday weapon and I don't think Hezbollah will go there," Mordechai Kedar of Tel Aviv's Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies told Israel's Media Line agency.

"I can't see them using chemical weapons against Israel because that would be the end of them. Their objective is to create a state, not eradicate Israel. So the war against Israel is merely a means, not an aim in itself."

It should be noted, however, that Hezbollah calls for the destruction of Israel and the "liberation" of Jerusalem.

Its fighters have conducted suicide attacks in the past and are prepared to do so again. But if Hezbollah used chemical weapons against Israel or its military, that would provoke massive retaliation that could devastate tiny Lebanon.

Meantime, Beirut newspapers reported that the Iranian Embassy in the Lebanese capital had consulted the Lebanese military about its arms requirements.

The army command reportedly responded that it needed effective air-defense systems. At present it only has obsolete Soviet-era anti-aircraft guns, 23mm and 50mm, that have no radar or fire-control and are totally ineffective against the marauding Israeli jets.

Up to now, the United States -- and France to a lesser extent -- has provided Lebanon's military with equipment worth some $400 million. But this has been largely non-lethal and has not bolstered the army's capabilities to the point it could take on Israel's military with an expectation of success.

The Israelis believe that if Iran supplied Lebanon's military with surface-to-air missiles, these would inevitably end up in Hezbollah's hands. The vast majority of the 53,000-strong army is Shiite.

The timing of the reported Iranian offer may be linked to a recent statement by Lebanon's prime minister-designate, Saad Hariri, that he would include Hezbollah in his new government he is seeking to form following June 7 elections.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has warned that if Hezbollah joins Lebanon's government, Hariri's Cabinet would be held responsible for any future attack on Israel and the entire country would suffer the consequences.

Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war in July and August 2006 that ended with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire. During the conflict, in which Hezbollah fired some 4,000 rockets into the Jewish state, Israeli warplanes blasted Hezbollah strongholds and Shiite centers daily.

They destroyed some bridges and roads, but generally did not attack non-Shiite targets.

related report
Israel not wary of MiG sale to Syria
At least four MiG warplanes that Russia is set to deliver to Syria lack offensive capabilities, allaying concerns among the military brass in Tel Aviv, Israeli news reports said Tuesday.

The reports follow recent confirmation by Russia of a 2007 contract with Syria for the potential sale of MiG-31E fighters to Syria.

The aircraft, code-named Foxhound, can fly three times the speed of sound and engage several targets at a range of up to 110 miles simultaneously.

None of the planes has been delivered because work on the jet fighters at United Aircraft's Sokol plant in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod had been suspended because of strenuous objections by Israel and lack of funds by Damascus.

Still, the Jerusalem Post reported this week, the four MiG-31E fighter jets that will be sent to Syria will be used for intelligence-gathering purposes only.

Citing undisclosed sources from Russia, the newspaper said that "two of the planes would be operational and the other two would be purchased for 'cannibalization' purposes."

That means the aircraft would be used for "spare parts."

Shrouded in secrecy and ambiguity for years, the MiG contract is estimated at between $400 million and $500 million.

Reports of the deal first emerged in 2007, but they were quickly rebuffed by Moscow and the state's arms-trading monopoly, Rosoboronexport, which claimed it had no intentions of delivering the warplanes to Syria.

Earlier this year, however, the former head of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency confirmed the existence of a deal during Senate testimony, saying that the deal had in fact been signed between Moscow and Damascus and that Syria was set to take delivery of jets "in the near future," the Jerusalem Post reported.

Even so, concerns in Israel were quickly allayed because of the MiGs' lack of offensive capabilities.

"Due to its ability to fly fast and at high altitudes, it is suitable for gathering intelligence but does not maneuver well at lower altitudes," the report said quoting Yiftah Shapir, head of the Middle East Military Balance project at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

Syria's arming of MiG-31E warplanes would afford it greater ability to intercept Israeli aircraft en route to Iran, its ally.

It is not clear whether the reported sale of Russian warplanes to Syria would include the MiG-29, the advance version of the MiG-31E.

Defense officials in Israel warn that the MiG-29s can function as interceptors and bombers.

The multimillion-dollar contract marks Syria's first purchase of fighter aircraft in more than 20 years.

Chavez told Le Figaro newspaper that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was an ally and a friend, speaking three days after he signed agreements to strengthen cooperation during a visit to Tehran.

"I thank him for the technology transfers from Iran to Venezuela. We signed a new agreement last week in Tehran," he said.

"Iran has the right to develop nuclear energy as do France and many other countries and why not Venezuela."

The United States and other Western powers along with Israel have accused Iran of trying to build a nuclear bomb under the cover of a civilian nuclear energy programme. Iran denies the claim.

"I am sure that Iran is not working on production of a bomb. No one has provided any proof of that," said Chavez.

Chavez announced last week that Venezuela is working on a preliminary plan for the construction of a "nuclear village" with Iranian assistance to allow Venezuelans to benefit from nuclear energy.

After travelling to Libya, Algeria, Turkmenistan and Belarus, Chavez was due to begin a visit to Russia on Wednesday.