"Assad's declarations must be taken seriously," Israeli Reserve General Amos Gilad told army radio in response to the article.

"It is necessary to carefully study such menacing declarations. In the long term the declarations of Assad are of great importance, but for the time being they change nothing. It is not a concrete threat."

The Syrian president said Israel had abandoned the Middle East peace process since then-premier Ariel Sharon came to power in 2001.

"This means that there will be no peace in the foreseeable future. If there is no peace, naturally you should expect that war may come. The no-war, no-peace situation means there will either be peace or war," the Syrian leader said.

Syria had been on alert for an Israeli attack during the Jewish state's 34-day offensive against the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon which ended in mid-August.

Israeli warplanes overflew one of Assad's presidential palaces in June because of what Israel said was Syria's support for the ruling Palestinian faction Hamas which it calls a terrorist organisation.

Peace talks between Syria and Israel have been frozen since 2000, with Damascus demanding that Israel hand over the Golan Heights, which it has occupied since 1967.

"One must defend one's country fiercely," Assad said, citing as an example Hezbollah's "resistance" to the Israeli offensive launched on July 12 following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by the Shiite guerrillas.

"But in Syria, we have always believed that the peace process was an (ideal) solution which did not exact a heavy price."

Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said his country had taken into account the possibility of an Israeli military attack.

"Syria has considered the possibility of Israeli military action," Bilal told Al-Jazeera television in an interview aired Sunday.

Syria "is ready for all options and for Israel's hostile plans following the failure of its aggression in Lebanon."

Bilal also described the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as "in crisis after its defeat in Lebanon and the victory of the Lebanese resistance."

"We will also impose sanctions on them," Ahmadinejad told reporters late Sunday in response to a question about a decision by the five Security Council permanent members plus Germany to discuss the prospect of sanctions.

"In the past 27 years they have always threatened us with sanctions and during this time they did everything they could," he said according to the student ISNA and semi-official ILNA agencies.

"They do their thing and in return we will do ours."

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful energy needs, vehemently rejecting US allegations that it is seeking to manufacture nuclear weapons.

Its right to enrich uranium lies at the heart of the crisis. The process can be used to make nuclear fuel and, in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atomic bomb.

In a meeting late on Friday, representatives from Britain, China, Germany France, Russia and the United States agreed to discuss sanctions against Iran after it refused to heed a new deadline to halt uranium enrichment.

Senior US official Nicholas Burns has said the so-called "5+1" group will start drafting a sanctions resolution this week, although he has admitted finding a consensus on the extent of punitive measures will be difficult.

Whether Russia and China will support sanctions measures proposed by the United States and its chief ally Britain remains unclear. Moscow and Beijing have always insisted on a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Considerable momentum towards drafting a sanctions resolution appeared to have been generated by the meeting between top diplomats from the six world powers in London after weeks of talks with Iran failed to win a breakthrough.

But it remains to be seen whether this can be maintained amid the growing uproar over the announcement by North Korea early Monday it had conducted its first test of a nuclear weapon.

The UN Security Council was expected to hold an emergency meeting later Monday to weigh how to respond to North Korea's test, which came in brazen defiance of a previous UN resolution.

Such moves could take up precious time that was to be devoted to the Iranian nuclear issue and further stave off the threat of UN action. Tehran has yet to issue an official reaction to Pyongyang's move.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who attended the London meeting, has said the United States wants a graduated series of sanctions, to be implemented through multiple UN resolutions that would ramp up pressure on Iran.

The first set of measures is expected to focus on preventing the supply of material and funding for Iran's nuclear or ballistic missile programmes.

Other steps could include asset freezes and travel bans on officials linked to possible Iranian weapons programmes.

One of the most isolated and impoverished nations in the world, North Korea called the blast a "historic event" that had been carried out safely for the betterment of security and peace.

But nations around the globe, from arch-foe the United States to North Korea's main ally China, reacted with worry and dismay. Stock markets in Asia plummeted amid fears the test would spark a new nuclear arms race.

"We expect the Security Council to take immediate action to respond to this unprovoked act," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. China said the test was "brazenly" in defiance of international demands.

Making good on last week's vow to carry out the test because of what it called the threat of war from the United States, North Korea said the test had been successfully carried out under secure conditions.

"It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the (North Korean army) and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defence capability," the official KCNA news agency said.

"It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the area around it," KCNA said.

Little is publicly known about the nuclear programme of the North, which first announced last year that it had developed a nuclear weapon. The CIA has said North Korea probably had several nuclear warheads.

Officials in neighbouring South Korea quoted by Yonhap news agency said the blast appeared to have been carried out at 0136 GMT at Hwadaeri near North Korea's northeast coast.

The South Korean presidential office said the state intelligence agency had detected a 3.58-magnitude seismic tremor at the time.

A South Korean lawmaker, citing intelligence officials, said it appeared to have been conducted in a horizontal tunnel in a 360-metre (1,200-foot) mountain near a missile base in the Stalinist country's northeast.

The test came just while new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a hawkish politician who rose to prominence at home by taking a hard line on the North Korean regime, was to hold his first summit with his South Korean counterpart.

Abe and South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun were meeting in Seoul for talks that had been expected to focus on finding a way to dissuade North Korea from going ahead with the test.

"North Korea's nuclear weapons test can never be pardonable. But we should collect and analyze more intelligence on the matter in a cool-headed manner," Abe said.

Roh called an emergency meeting of related ministers to discuss counter-measures, while Japan and South Korea launched crisis talks on the issue.

"Our government will sternly deal with this in accordance with the principle that it will not tolerate North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons," South Korean presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-Young said.

After years of dispute over the North, progress appeared in September last year, when Pyongyang said at six-nation talks it would abandon its programme in exchange for security and other guarantees.

But within two months it said it was boycotting further talks after the United States imposed unilateral financial sanctions on the North over alleged money laundering and counterfeiting of US currency.

Pyongyang was then slapped with limited sanctions by the Security Council after test-firing seven missiles in July this year -- one of them believed to be eventually able to reach US soil.



On Monday, the United States quickly warned that it would come to the defence of Japan, which has been officially pacifist since World War II and falls under the US strategic defence umbrella.

"The United States is closely monitoring the situation and reaffirms its commitment to protect and defend our allies in the region," said Snow, the White House spokesman.

Bush has made the fight against nuclear proliferation a centrepiece of his foreign policy, especially since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Christopher Hill, the lead US envoy on North Korea, said last week: "We are not going to live with a nuclear North Korea. We are not going to accept it."

But it was not immediately clear what options the United States had to deal with Pyongyang.

North Korea has repeatedly argued it needs nuclear weapons to deter any attack from the United States, which it fears will try to topple one of the last pure Communist regimes in the world.

In announcing plans for the test last week, North Korea said it was "at the crossroads of life and death."

There are about 29,000 US troops stationed in South Korea, alongside 650,000 South Korean troops that face off against 1.2 million North Korean troops across one of the most heavily militarised borders in the world.

Only Friday, the 15-member Council unanimously adopted a non-binding statement calling on Pyongyang not to go ahead with the test and warned of unspecified consequences if it did so.

The council has scheduled a formal vote for early Monday to nominate South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon as its choice to succeed Kofi Annan when the Ghanaian UN chief steps down at the end of December.

But the vote was bound to overshadowed by North Korea's defiant act. Diplomats had been expected the test this weekend and indicated that an council emergency meeting would be held in response.

A UN spokesmen said no meeting had been immediately scheduled but White House spokesman Tony Snow signaled a session was in the works. "We would expect the Security Council to meet (Monday)," he told reporters in Washington.

During negotiations over the council statement adopted Friday, Japan, which chairs the council for October, and the United States had pushed for inclusion of a threat to resort to mandatory sanctions, including an arms embargo and other trade and financial sanctions under Chapter Seven of the UN charter.

But in the face of opposition from China and Russia, the explicit mention of sanctions was removed although the text said a test "would represent a clear threat to international peace and security," which in UN parlance is often a trigger for mandatory sanctions under Chapter Seven.

Chapter Seven authorizes wide-ranging sanctions or even as a last resort military action to ensure compliance with council resolutions.

Friday's statement also urged North Korea to return immediately to six-nation talks on its nuclear program and keep to a September 2005 pledge to abandon it in exchange for energy and security benefits.

The North has since November boycotted the talks with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States in response to US financial sanctions.

Last week, US Ambassador John Bolton urged the council to respond to a test with punitive action going beyond the missile-related sanctions imposed on the North in a Security Council resolution passed in July.

That resolution was passed after the North launched seven missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2 believed to be capable of striking US soil.

The North Korean test was announced just as Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun were meeting in Seoul for talks that had been expected to focus on finding a way to dissuade North Korea from going ahead with the test.

KCNA said the test "will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it."

Last week, in announcing plans to test a nuclear device, Pyongyang cited the threat of sanctions and nuclear war from the United States, which considers the North part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

It said the nuclear weapons were needed for self-defence.

"We are absolutely and resolutely opposed to this flagrant nuclear test and it is absolutely against the non-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," Ferrero-Waldner told reporters during a visit to Malaysia on Monday.

"We do hope that the tests are being suspended. We do hope the North Koreans are coming back to the six-party talks," she added, adding it was the isolated state's only chance of engaging with the international community.

But Ferrero-Walder said the European Union would not suspend humanitarian aid to North Korea because the aid was "going to the poorest of the poor."

"For the time being we are not considering that," she said.

European Union aid to North Korea has already been slashed by 50 percent to 10 million euros (12.6 million dollars) in 2006 from 21 million euros last year, said the commissioner, who will travel to neighbouring Singapore later Monday.

Pyongyang said Monday it had carried out its first test of an atomic bomb in what the official Korean Central News Agency described as a "historic event" aimed at bettering peace and security.

The underground blast -- which was criticised around the world -- defied international pressure to keep the secretive regime from becoming one of the world's nuclear powers.

Jittery nations have warned a test would unravel regional security and possibly trigger an arms race.

A midday incursion Saturday by North Korean troops into the southern side of the no-man's-land separating North and South Korea only stoked the unease.

South Korean soldiers rattled off 40 warning shots at the five communist troops who crossed the center line of the Demilitarized Zone, the inter-Korean buffer.

It was unclear whether the North Korean advance was intended as a provocation, or was an attempt to go fishing at a nearby stream, an official at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said on condition of anonymity, citing official policy. No one was hurt, and the North Koreans retreated.

While such border skirmishes are not unheard of, they are relatively rare. Saturday's incursion was only the second this year, the official said.

Meanwhile, world powers were stepping up diplomatic efforts to avert a nuclear test. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was to visit Beijing on Sunday for talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and then proceed to Seoul for talks with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun the following day.

A State Department spokesman, Kurtis Cooper, said Saturday the United States was concerned about North Korea's threat to test its first atomic bomb and that the department was closely monitoring the high tensions.

Also Saturday, South Korea's nuclear envoy announced he will visit Beijing on Monday for two days of talks with Chinese officials about the threatened nuclear test.

In a separate statement from Tokyo, Japan's Foreign Ministry said it was prepared to push for punitive measures at the
United Nations if the North goes ahead with the test.

"If North Korea conducts a nuclear weapons test despite the concerns expressed by international society, the Security Council must adopt a resolution outlining severely punitive measures," the ministry said.

Japan plans to step up economic sanctions against North Korea, tighten trade restrictions and freeze additional North Korea-linked bank accounts should a nuclear test be carried out, Japan's Nihon Keizai newspaper reported.

The U.N. statement adopted Friday expressed "deep concern" over North Korea's announcement Tuesday that it is planning a test.

The council acted amid speculation that a nuclear test could come on Sunday, the anniversary of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's appointment as head of the Korean Workers' Party in 1997.

Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi told Japan's TV Asahi: "Based on the development so far, it would be best to view that a test is possible this weekend."

The U.N. statement also urged North Korea to return to six-nation negotiations aimed at persuading the country to abandon its nuclear ambitions in exchange for security guarantees and badly needed economic aid.

Those talks, which involve the United States, China, Japan, Russia and North and South Korea, have been stalled since late last year, when North Korea boycotted the negotiations in response to American economic sanctions.

A North Korea expert in China, the North's closest ally, said only the removal of the sanctions could dissuade the North.

"North Korea has already made a decision to carry out a test," said Li Dunqiu of China's State Council Development Research Center, a Cabinet-level think tank. But "if the U.S. removes sanctions ... then tensions can be eased. Otherwise launching a nuclear test is unavoidable for North Korea."

The United States imposed economic restrictions on North Korea last year to punish it for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

North Korea said Tuesday it decided to act in the face of what it claimed was "the U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war," but gave no date for the test. Washington has repeatedly said it has no intention of invading North Korea.

He said the south of the country, where NATO troops have fought their most intense battles this year, has been "broadly stabilized," which gives the alliance an opportunity to launch projects there. If it doesn't, he estimates about 70 percent of Afghans could switch their allegiance from NATO to the Taliban.

"They will say, 'We do not want the Taliban but then we would rather have that austere and unpleasant life that that might involve than another five years of fighting,'" Richards said in an interview.

"We have created an opportunity," following the intense fighting that left over 500 militants dead in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, he said. "If we do not take advantage of this, then you can pour an additional 10,000 troops next year and we would not succeed because we would have lost by then the consent of the people."

NATO extended its security mission last week to all of Afghanistan, taking command of 12,000 U.S. troops in the war-battered country's east. The mission is the biggest ground combat operation in NATO history and gives Richards command of the largest number of U.S. troops under a foreign leader since World War II.

Some 8,000 U.S. troops will continue to function outside NATO, tracking al-Qaida terrorists, helping train Afghan security forces and doing reconstruction work.

Afghanistan is going through its worst bout of violence since the U.S.-led invasion removed the former Taliban regime from power five years ago. The Taliban has made a comeback in the south and east of the country and is seriously threatening Western attempts to stabilize the country after almost three decades of war.

Taliban militants have acknowledged adopting the suicide attacks commonly used by insurgents in
Iraq, launching 78 suicide bombings across Afghanistan this year which have killed close to 200 people, NATO said Sunday.

There were only two suicide attacks in 2003 and six in 2004, according to Seth Jones, an analyst for the U.S.-based RAND Corp. He said there were 21 in 2005.

Richards, who will lead the NATO forces in Afghanistan until U.S. Gen. Dan K. McNeil takes over in February, said the Taliban may lose support among Afghans if it continues the attacks.

"The very cowardly use of suicide bombers, the tragic use of suicide bombers, reveals weakness on the part of the Taliban, not strength," he said.

Richards said NATO troops have also seen an upsurge in violence along the eastern border with Pakistan since that country's government signed a deal with pro-Taliban militants last month to end fighting that broke out after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.

U.S. military officials have said the number of attacks on coalition and Afghan troops has tripled in the tribal border region. Afghan and Western officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of not doing all it can to block the flow of insurgents over the border, but Pakistan has rejected the charge.

Richards, who will travel to Pakistan for meetings with military leaders on Monday, urged "partnership and cooperation rather than confrontation" in dealings with Pakistan.

The U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces killed five suspected insurgents in a clash in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, the Ministry of Defense said. One suspected insurgent was detained following the gunfight in eastern Paktika province.

Delivery was supposed to have taken place last year.

The deal, which includes four spare engines and about 300 Hellfire missiles, also provides for maintenance, supply of necessary spare parts, and the training of 48 pilots and instructors as well as 200 Kuwaiti technicians.

At the time of the signing, the minister said the Apaches will be equipped with state-of-the-art systems that will allow them to operate under any conditions.

They will also be equipped with electronic protection systems, Longbow radars and anti-armor Hellfire air-to-surface missiles, the minister said.

Since its liberation by a US-led coalition from seven months of Iraqi occupation in 1991, the oil-rich emirate has spent billions of dollars on arms purchases, mainly from the United States.

It has also bought arms from Britain, France, Russia and China.

It has spent a 12-billion-dollar supplementary defense budget, launched after the liberation, mainly for arms purchases on top of its normal military budget.

Defense and security account for about 15 percent of public spending, which last fiscal year reached 23 billion dollars.

Kuwait is linked in a defense pact with the United States that runs until 2012 and around 15,000 US troops are stationed in the Gulf state.

It has also signed similar pacts with France and Britain.

"Hundreds of soldiers were poisoned after taking food and water in the iftar," Wasit Gov. Hamad al-Latif told the Associated Press, referring to the meal that breaks the sunrise-to-sunset fast during the Islamic holy month. "Investigations are under way to determine the cause."

Samples of the food and water were being tested "to determine the substance in them" and will be sent to Baghdad for further tests, al-Latif said.

Sunni insurgents who have targeted police and military forces with bombings and shootings have not been known to use poisoning as a weapon. But the suddenness and severity of the sickness raised speculation that the incident could be a new attack. The division is mainly made up of Shiites.

Between 600-700 policemen were affected to varying degrees, and 11 who had the heaviest amount of the food had died, al-Atwan told The Associated Press.

Some of the soldiers collapsed as soon as they stood up from the meal, others fell "one after the other" as they headed out to the yard in the base to line up in formation, al-Atwan said.

Iraqi ambulances and helicopters sent by the U.S. military rushed the policemen to hospitals in Numaniyah and the nearby city of Kut.

The afflicted policemen belonged to the 4th Division of the National Police, nicknamed the "Karrar" Division, after a title of Imam Ali, the most revered Shiite saint.

The division normally operates around the town of Salman Pak on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad -- an area of intense Shiite-Sunni killings. The division was sent to the base in Numaniyah, 60 miles southeast of the capital, for further training.

Al-Latif said food and water at the base are provided by an Australian contractor working through Iraqi subcontractors. He did not identify the Australian firm.

A Buddhist villager was shot dead by suspected Islamic militants Sunday evening as he sat in front of his house in Narathiwat, one of three southern provinces plagued by separatist violence and other unrest.

Also in Narathiwat, a married couple and their relative were shot at home early Monday. The couple died before arriving at hospital, while the relative was seriously injured.

Police said the shooting could be related to business rather than the ongoing insurgency, which has killed more than 1,500 people in the region bordering Malaysia since violence erupted in January 2004.

The attacks came despite moves by Thailand's coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin to hold talks with insurgents in the southern provinces, which were an ethnic Malay sultanate until Buddhist Thailand annexed them a century ago.

The move by Sonthi, the first Muslim to head mainly Buddhist Thailand's military, marked a stark policy change from the government of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra, which refused to negotiate with the insurgents.

The southern Helmand province, where the bulk of about 4,500 British troops in Afghanistan are operating, has seen fierce fighting this year as soldiers take on resurgent Taliban rebels loyal to the deposed Islamist regime.

Senior officers reckon the intensity of Taliban attacks is so severe that they could not risk a constitutional crisis by putting Harry's life on the line, The Mail on Sunday said.

As Second Lieutenant Wales, Harry is training to become a troop commander, in charge of 11 enlisted soldiers and four light tanks.

A senior cavalry source told the newspaper that it would boost morale if Harry were allowed to deploy. However, even if he was confined to headquarters, he would still be subject to rocket attacks.

"The fact is that his royal appointment could make him a target and put the lives of his soldiers in danger and while he will regret the decision I know he will appreciate and understand the thinking and evaluation behind it," the source said.

Harry is keen to get into combat zones.

In September 2005, Harry said: "There's no way I'm going to put myself through Sandhurst (training academy) and then sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting for their country."

In The Mail on Sunday report, the Ministry of Defence said: "The intention is that Prince Harry will play as full a part as he can during his Army career, including participating in operations and exercises.

"The decision whether or not to deploy the prince on an operation would be made at the point when his unit were formally scheduled to deploy."

Clarence House, the offical residence of Harry's father
Prince Charles, said: "No formal recommendation has been made to us."