WASHINGTON, Feb 27: The United States faces growing threats on multiple fronts with Al Qaeda still the top danger, but Iran on the rise and on course to produce nuclear weapons early in the next decade, US intelligence chiefs said on Tuesday.Their survey of global threats also found Iraq in a “precarious” condition and the Taliban gaining strength in Afghanistan despite suffering heavy combat losses in 2006.

Some assessments such as those on Iraq had previously been aired in separate intelligence estimates, but taken together they formed a blunt appraisal of mounting threats faced by the United States on an array of fronts.

“Terrorism remains the pre-eminent threat to the homeland, to our security interests globally, and to our allies. And Al Qaeda continues to be the terrorist organisation that poses the greatest threat,” said retired admiral Michael McConnell, the new director of national intelligence.

McConnell said core elements of Al Qaeda's senior leader are “resilient” and continue to plot mass casualty attacks against the United States and other targets.

“Indeed, Al Qaeda, along with other terrorist groups, continues to seek chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons or materials,” he said.

McConnell confirmed that Al Qaeda is re-establishing training camps in Pakistan in tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. US officials said small groups of operatives are being trained at the compounds for attacks in the west.

“To the best of our knowledge the senior leadership, number one and number two, are there,” he said referring to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri.

“And they are attempting to re-establish and rebuild and they are establishing training camps,” McConnell said.

He said the numbers involved are not comparable to the thousands of recruits that went through Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan before the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

“The numbers are not the same but there are volunteers who are attempting to re-establish. So it's something we're very worried about and very concerned about,” he said.

Vice President Dick Cheney raised US concerns this week with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf in an unannounced trip to Islamabad.

McConnell also expressed worry about Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia group backed by Iran, which he said had grown in confidence since last summer's fighting to Israeli forces.

In a statement that accompanied his testimony, the intelligence chief devoted attention to the rise of Iran as a threat and US concerns that he said go beyond Tehran's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

“We assess that Iran seeks to develop nuclear weapons and has shown greater interest in drawing out the negotiations rather than reaching an acceptable diplomatic solution,” he said.

“This is a very dangerous situation as a nuclear Iran could prompt destabilising countermoves by other states in this volatile region,” he said.

“While our information is incomplete, we estimate that Iran could produce a nuclear weapon by early to mid next decade,” he said.

Rising oil income and perceived successes of its surrogates Hamas and Hezbollah has extended Iran's influence in the Middle East, disturbing Arab states, he said.

McConnell cited Iran's ballistic missiles and naval power as elements of a conventional military force that he said threatens oil-rich Gulf states and challenges US interests.

“It seeks a capacity to disrupt the operations and reinforcement of US forces based in the region -- potentially intimidating regional allies into withholding support for US policy -- and raising the political, financial, and human costs to the US and our allies of our presence in Iraq,” it said.

The statement said Iran regards its ability to conduct terrorist operations as a key element of its national security strategy, and that Hezbollah plays a central role in it.

Hezbollah is mainly focused on Lebanon, but in the past has made “contingency plans to conduct attacks against US interests in the event it feels its survival -- or that of Iran -- is threatened,” McConnell said.

On Iraq, the director cited key judgments from a separate intelligence estimate that security in the country is “moving in a negative direction” and that the term “civil war” aptly describes elements of the conflict there.

“Unless efforts to reverse these conditions gain real traction during the 12-18 month time frame ... we assess that the security situation will continue to deteriorate at rates comparable to the latter half of 2006,” he said.—AFP