Bush plan for military

President Bush has painted a picture of a new, leaner and more flexible US military, equipped with intelligent missiles targeted by unmanned aircraft, as he launched a major drive to reignite a debate on the country's future defence strategy.

That debate was cut short by September 11th but has been made all the more possible by Congress's new willingness to vote a $318 billion budget for next year, enough, experts say, to both rearm and reform.

He said the next priority in the US war on terrorism was to prevent the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, saying "rogue states" were the most likely sources of such arms.

"Above all, we are acting to end the state sponsorship of terror. Rogue states are clearly the most likely sources of chemical and biological and nuclear weapons for terrorists," Mr Bush said.

"Every nation now knows that we cannot accept, and we will not accept, states that harbour, finance, train or equip the agents of terror."

The transformation of the US military to face the challenges of the 21st century was now the "military and moral necessity of our time", Mr Bush told military cadets at the Citadel military school in South Carolina.

Citing the experience of the US in Afghanistan in rewriting the rules of war, combining techniques from land and air in a way they had never before achieved, he called on politicians and the military to abandon pet projects and old ways in the cause of fundamental reform.