Having been informed by EADS of its possible interest in the contract, the Defense Department "would consider a reasonable extension to the RFP (Request for Proposals) deadline," press secretary Geoff Morrell told AFP.

The US Air Force tanker aircraft project has been plagued by controversy and scandal, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European officials accusing Washington of setting up rules to favor US aviation giant Boeing.

European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, parent of aircraft maker Airbus, said earlier Thursday that it would be "impossible" to meet the mid-May deadline for bidding on the 35-billion-dollar contract.

"It?s clear that in the 60-day timeframe, that it?s impossible for anybody, even for Lockheed Martin, to build a solution," EADS chief Louis Gallois said at a briefing in New York, according to his spokesman.
The 60-day period roughly is the time left after EADS's US bid partner Northrop Grumman dropped out of the competition on March 8.

Asked about Northrop's decision to bow out, Gallois called it a "huge frustration."

Northrop Grumman's exit from the competition left the field open to Boeing, arch-rival of France-based Airbus.

The Pentagon was committed to a "fair and open competition" and would "welcome" a decision by EADS to participate, Morrell said.
Extending the deadline for proposals is "not unusual," he said.

Deadlines for proposals have been postponed for other defense programs, Morrell said, including the US Navy's unmanned aircraft system (BAMS), the VH-71 helicopter, and a new version of the precision-guided small diameter bomb, SDB II.

But it remained unclear if EADS would decide to take part, with analysts saying the terms of the contest favor Boeing's smaller, cheaper plane.

In the last competition, EADS and Northrop offered a modified version of the Airbus 330, while Boeing proposed an altered 767 in its bid.

Northrop, EADS, key European officials and US lawmakers whose states would have benefited from a Northrop victory have accused the Pentagon of unfairly structuring the bid requirements to benefit Boeing's smaller plane.
The Pentagon has rejected the charges and insisted the terms of the project favor neither side.

EADS, which enjoys support from key Republicans in Congress, could be trying to prolong the contest until legislative elections in November when Republicans are expected to make gains against rival Democrats, said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group Corporation.

"I think one of EADS?s goals is to extend the competition beyond the US election, in the hope that Republicans take back the House of Representatives," he told AFP. "But the Pentagon seems to want to move forward now."
The Defense Department released the final requirements for the contract to build 197 tanker planes on February 24, opening bidding for 75 days.

Sarkozy last week criticised the United States over the tanker contest, saying it was not the way for Washington to treat its European allies.

"These are methods which are not good for the partners of the United States, which is a great nation with which we are close and friends with," Sarkozy said in London.

The Northrop-EADS team originally won the contract in February 2008, but the deal was cancelled after Boeing successfully appealed the decision to the investigative arm of Congress.

In 2003, the Pentagon awarded a contract to Boeing but later suspended the deal after an ethics scandal involving a company executive and an Air Force official. The Air Force official was later convicted of criminal conspiracy.
Military commanders view the planned KC-X aircraft as crucial to sustaining US air power and are anxious to replace the older Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers that date back to the 1950s.

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The foreign companies competing to supply Brazil's air force with 36 new fighter jets are France's Dassault with its Rafale fighter; Sweden's Saab with the Gripen NG aircraft; and US-based Boeing with the F/A-18 Super Hornet.

The O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper reported that the air force said in a report delivered to the defense ministry that all of the contenders met its specifications.

It added that the decision on who would win the lucrative bid to replace Brazil's fleet of aging fighter jets would be made by the country's political leaders, not the military.

Air force and defense ministry officials contacted by AFP declined to comment on the news report.

Brazilian Air Force General Juniti Saito said last month that Brazil likely would make its pick known in late March, but did not set a date.

Saito stressed it would be a "political and strategic decision" made by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Analysts believe France's Rafale is the leading contender after Lula and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said last September that negotiations were underway for Brazil to buy 36 of them.

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President Barack Obama's administration in January approved a 6.4 billion dollar arms package for Taiwan including helicopters, Patriot missiles and mine-hunting ships, angering Beijing.

State Department official David Shear told a congressional panel that the United States will "continue to stand by our commitment" under US law to provide Taiwan with weapons to defend itself.

"Taiwan must be confident that it has the physical capacity to resist intimidation and coercion in order to engage fully with the mainland," said Shear, the deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia, on Thursday.

Testifying before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, US officials declined to say if the Obama administration would approve a top item on Taiwan's wish-list -- F-16 fighter-jets.

Despite his drive to repair relations with Beijing, President Ma Ying-jeou has pitched for F-16s to refurbish Taiwan's aging fleet. A recent report by Taiwan's defense ministry found that China has gained an edge in air power.

Michael Schiffer, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, said he "didn't want to suggest a decision one way or the other" on the F-16s.

China has been ramping up military spending for years as part of a modernization drive for its People's Liberation Army (PLA).

Despite China's growing interests around the world, "we believe that the primary focus of the PLA build-up remains oriented on preparing for contingencies in the Taiwan Strait," Schiffer said.

"It appears Beijing's long-term strategy is to use political, diplomatic, economic and cultural levers to pursue unification with Taiwan, while building a credible military threat to attack the island if events are moving in what Beijing sees as the wrong direction," he said.

China also appears content not to attack Taiwan if it believes it will achieve its goals in the long run but is determined to pose a "credible threat" to pressure the island, Schiffer said.

Taiwan is ruled by nationalists who fled China in 1949 after losing the mainland's civil war. Beijing considers the island part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

David Shlapak, an analyst at the Rand Corp. think tank, said that the chances China could deliver a "knock-out blow" to Taiwan's air force at the start of a conflict have "increased substantially in recent years."

"China is assembling a military capable of providing the leadership in Beijing with credible options for the use of force against Taiwan, even in the face of US opposition," Shlapak told the panel.

China strongly opposes US arms sales to Taiwan, arguing that they run counter to the US recognition in 1979 of Beijing as China's sole government.

China responded sharply to the arms sales in January, warning that the United States was setting back relations and -- in a new step -- explicitly threatening sanctions on US companies involves in the contracts.

But Shear said that China's reaction "did not exceed our expectations."

"As far as I know, the Chinese have not implemented that threat. They have not yet imposed any sanctions on US firms," Shear testified.

Some US-based China watchers believe that Beijing may have concluded that it went too far in antagonizing Obama, who in his first year put off decisions certain to irk the growing Asian power.

China criticized Obama in February when he met with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama but made no concrete threat of retaliation.

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The 1,000 missiles include Scuds, Rodongs and IRBMs (intermediate-range ballistic missiles), a ministry spokeswoman told AFP. Two years ago, the ministry estimated the total at around 800.

Many of the missiles are deployed near the inter-Korean border and targeted at Seoul or other locations in the South, officials have said.

Yonhap news agency said last week the North has set up a new military division to operate IRBMs with a range of more than 3,000 kilometres (1,860 miles), capable of hitting US bases in Japan and Guam.

It is also known to have test-launched three intercontinental Taepodong missiles, which in theory could reach Alaska.

Kim, reiterating earlier estimates, said the North has produced 30-40 kilograms (66-88 pounds) of weapons-grade plutonium from its plutonium programme. Experts say this is enough to build six or seven bombs.

It is not known whether the North yet has the technical capability to create a nuclear warhead.

Pyongyang conducted two underground nuclear tests in October 2006 and May 2009. Recanting its earlier denials, last September it also announced it is running an experimental highly enriched uranium programme.

The North is under diplomatic pressure to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks which it quit last April.

As conditions for resuming dialogue, it insists on a lifting of UN sanctions and a US commitment to start talks about a permanent peace treaty.

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"We have proposed to your government and your president sharing the experience of creating a defense system for the state," Lukashenko, visiting Caracas since Monday, told lawmakers. "If your president wants to do so, we will be able to do so very soon."

"And then you can live peacefully, without having to be looking around to see what the rest of the world may do tomorrow, whether they are going to help you or plot against you," argued Lukashenko.

"I am sincerely so very pleased that we have forged a strategic alliance," he added. "Our relations keep getting closer."

Venezuela will from May begin selling 80,000 barrels of oil a day to Belarus, Chavez said earlier after meeting his Belarussian counterpart.

Lukashenko is visiting Caracas to solidify industrial, commercial and diplomatic cooperation between the two nations.

"Even though we have not sold even one barrel of oil to Belarus, we will begin to sell 80,000 barrels of Venezuelan oil to Belarus beginning May 1," Chavez told journalists Monday.

"It will allow us to enter the European market, in the center of Europe, to engage in joint ventures with Belarussian refineries. Belarus is being very generous with us," he added.

Lukashenko arrived in Venezuela Monday for a two-day trip set to include visits to housing built with assistance from his government, as well as Venezuelan gas fields and other petrochemical facilities.

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The New York Times reported Monday that the official, named as Michael Furlong, had set up the network under the guise of an information-gathering program.

Citing unnamed military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States, the Times said Furlong hired contractors from private security companies employing ex-CIA and Special Forces agents.

These contractors were then supposed to gather intelligence on suspected militants and their hideouts which was fed to military units and intelligence officials in Afghanistan and Pakistan for use in possible strikes.

Some US officials told the Times they were concerned Furlong could be running an unofficial spy operation, adding they were not sure who condoned and supervised his work.

"That story makes some serious allegations and raises numerous questions that warrant further review by the department," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

But he refused to confirm the Times report that the Pentagon had already launched an investigation into the matter.

The New York Times said it was seen as illegal for the military to hire contractors to be covert spies.

Furlong may have improperly diverted funds from a regional information-gathering program to his network, The Times added.

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The test was abandoned when the radars following the target, a nuclear-capable missile, lost track of it after it blasted off from a site 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Bhubaneswar in eastern India.

"The 'hostile' missile went off the radars after it took off and deviated from its trajectory and so the interceptor was not launched," an official from Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said, asking not to be named.

DRDO spokesman Ravi Gupta in New Delhi confirmed the seven-metre (23-foot foot) interceptor missile was not launched during Monday's botched test.

India would join Israel, Russia and the United States in developing and possessing such technology if it is rolled out per schedule this year.

The system's tracking and fire control radars have been developed by the DRDO jointly with Israel and France.

Last month, India announced it would test a nuclear-capable missile with a range of over 5,000 kilometres within a year.

India's current longest-range nuclear-capable missile, Agni-III, can travel 3,500 kilometres.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan, with which India has fought three wars since their independence six decades ago, has said India's missile programme could trigger a new arms race in the region.

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In 2009, China became Iran's premier trade partner, with bilateral trade worth 21.2 billion dollars against 14.4 billion dollars three years earlier.

The figures confirm the exponential growth in commercial ties between the two countries, which were almost non-existent 15 years ago, when trade volumes amounted to just 400 million dollars.

According to official data, Western sanctions have opened the way for Chinese companies, which last year directly supplied Iran with 13 percent (7.9 billion dollars) of its imports.

Iranian estimates also suggest that an equivalent amount was imported indirectly through the United Arab Emirates in 2009.

The West is pressuring China, one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, to back further sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.

But new sanctions could harm the Asian powerhouse's burgeoning economic ties with the Islamic republic and Beijing insists diplomacy is the best way to end the standoff.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband is in China this week for talks in which Iran's nuclear programme and sanctions are certain to be raised.

Prior to China's ascendancy, Germany was Iran's largest importer for more than 20 years.

Now the growth in Sino-Iranian trade ties is expected to continue in 2010 with the recovery of the global economy, according to a European analyst.

Chinese companies are also making investments in a number of major projects in Iran, like the construction of a motorway linking Tehran and the Caspian Sea, via the Alborz mountains.

China is investing significantly in Iran's energy sector, although its oil purchases from the Islamic republic are a meagre 11.4 percent, far behind Angola and Saudi Arabia, which supply more than half of Beijing's crude imports.

With some 15 to 20 billion dollars worth of oil and gas contracts signed and an equivalent amount of new investments being negotiated, according to oil experts in Tehran, energy-hungry China has emerged as Iran's largest foreign investor.

"There is only Beijing which is still investing massively in Iran," said one expert, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The political pressures, financial problems caused by the banking restrictions and the uncertain economic returns have discouraged companies like Total, Shell, ENI and Statoil from renewing their investments in Iran," he added.

"China, which does not have these constraints and is concerned with securing its long-term energy needs, has taken the lead since 2005."

Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi backs this arguments, saying Chinese leaders will not "allow others to intervene" when it comes to Beijing's ties with Tehran.

"We have good cooperation with China. I congratulate the Chinese leadership which is seeking its nation's interest and wants to have a secure source of energy," Mirkazemi told reporters on Monday.

China National Petroleum Corp, the country's largest oil firm, and its subsidiary Petrochina agreed last year to invest some eight to nine billion dollars in one gas and two oil projects in Iran.

The oil projects are in Khuzestan, in southwestern Iran, while the gas project is at the giant South Pars field in the Gulf, where the Chinese firms replaced France's Total.

Sinopec, China's largest oil refining company, has also been involved since 2007 in exploiting Khuzestan's Yadavaran oil field, which envisages an investment of nearly three billion dollars.

Britain's Financial Times said in a report this month that Chinese companies are now supplying one-third of Iranian imports of petroleum products following the withdrawal of major Western suppliers.

However, analysts say the development of Sino-Iranian relations could run up against serious obstacles.

"Tehran wants China to invest, but at the same time it is very protective of its own businesses," said Hatef Haeri, who runs Bedigest.com, an Iranian economic information service.

"So Chinese companies face real mistrust in Iran, and must also overcome big cultural and linguistics barriers."

For its part, Beijing could be reluctant to sacrifice other more important interests if Western pressure intensifies.

Zhu Weilie, head of the Middle East Studies Institute at Shanghai International Studies University, said Iran's trade influence with China was far outweighed by China's commercial ties to the West.

"The US certainly matters most to China in terms of interests," he said. "China has extremely big trade volumes with the US, Europe and Japan, while trading volumes between China and Iran are just 20 billion dollars a year."

Two-way trade between China and the United States totalled 409 billion dollars in 2009, according to the US Congressional Research Service.

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"Because we are going to transform Venezuela into an economic, social, moral and technological power, we require the ability to defend (ourselves)," President Hugo Chavez said in a ceremony as he praised his country's friendship with "socialist and revolutionary China."

The Venezuelan and the Chinese governments negotiated the acquisition in late 2008 as part of Caracas' move to modernize and replace its aging fleet, which is largely based on US technology.

The K-8s are two-seater aircraft that can reach 12,190 meters (40,000 feet) and be equipped with machine guns and light bombs. They were jointly developed by China and Pakistan to support ground operations.

General Jorge Arevalo said last year that China would make three deliveries of the warplanes in 2010, starting with this first installment of six units.

Russia, China and Belarus are Venezuela's main military suppliers.

Last year, Caracas said it had obtained a 2.2-billion-dollar credit from Russia to purchase nearly 100 T-72 tanks and a series of anti-aircraft rocket systems from its strategic ally.

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US officials said the two separate attacks on Saturday killed an American employee of the US consulate in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, her US husband and a co-worker's Mexican husband.

The government of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua identified the victims as US consular worker Lesley Enriquez, her American husband Redelfs Arthur Haycock and Mexican national Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros.

Salcido Ceniceros was married to another employee of the US consulate here, Mexican authorities said.

There was no confirmation of the identities from the US side.

In a press release, the Chihuahua government said that based on the information exchanged between Mexican and US federal agencies, it was established that the investigation will focus on hitmen "belonging to a gang known as 'The Aztecas,'" which works for the Juarez Cartel.

No motive for the killings was suggested, but several prominent drug kingpins have been recently extradited by Mexico to the United States to stand trial.

Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, son of Sinaloa Cartel chief Ismael "el Mayo" Zambada-Garcia, appeared last month in a Chicago court on drug trafficking charges.

Meanwhile, Miguel Caro Quintero, a brother of another notorious Mexican drug baron, Rafael Caro Quintero, was sentenced earlier by a federal judge in Colorado to 17 years in jail.

The US Congress has approved some 1.3 billion dollars for Mexico under the regional three-year Merida Initiative, a joint plan to fight organized crime.

The victims came under fire in separate locations after attending the same social event earlier Saturday, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The slain couple was traveling with their infant daughter, who was in the back seat of the car and survived the attack unharmed, the US official said.

In the second attack, a Mexican employee of the consulate was following her husband and two children in a separate car, when her husband's vehicle came under fire, killing him and wounding the two children, the official said.

"Both families had attended the same social event earlier in the afternoon off-post away from the consulate," the US official said. "It has not been determined if the victims were specifically targeted."

The killings, condemned as "brutal" by President Barack Obama, prompted the State Department to authorize US staff in six consulates along the US-Mexican border to send their dependants home for safety.

In a travel warning, the State Department asked US citizens to "delay unnecessary travel" to parts of Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua states.

"While millions of US citizens safely visit Mexico each year ... violence in the country has increased," the State Department warned.

"Drug cartels and associated criminal elements have retaliated violently against individuals who speak out against them or whom they otherwise view as a threat to their organizations," the statement read.

Obama said in a statement that he was "deeply saddened and outraged by the news of the brutal murders."

And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered her "deepest sympathies" to the families of those slain.

"These appalling assaults on members of our own State Department family are, sadly, part of a growing tragedy besetting many communities in Mexico," she said in a statement.

"They underscore the imperative of our continued commitment to work closely with the Government of President (Felipe) Calderon to cripple the influence of trafficking organizations at work in Mexico."

Ciudad Juarez, population 1.3 million, is a major hub for smuggling illegal drugs into the United States. It is directly across the border from El Paso, Texas.

More than 2,600 people were murdered in Ciudad Juarez in 2009 in drug-related violence.

The war between rival drug cartels to control major border crossing points, as well as the government's attempt to crack down on the cartels, has killed more than 15,000 people across Mexico over the last three years, according to government figures.

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