The International Atomic Energy Agency report will take stock of Iran's uranium enrichment activities in spite of international sanctions and detail findings from an October visit to a previously secret atomic site at Qom.

President Barack Obama on Sunday won the strongest backing yet from Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on Iran, with the US leader expressing frustration that Tehran had yet to answer an offer to enrich uranium outside of Iran.

"Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran has been unable to say yes" to the proposal, Obama said after talks with Medvedev in Singapore. "We now are running out of time with respect to that approach."

Russia, which has the strongest ties with Tehran of any big power, has traditionally been unwilling to punish Iran with tough measures. But Medvedev said that Tehran risked sanctions if the crisis continued. Related article: US, Russia warn Iran over nuclear plans

He said Moscow was "not completely happy about the pace" of efforts to resolve the crisis.

"In case we fail, the other options remain on the table, in order to move the process in a different direction," he said in a reference to new UN sanctions against Tehran.

Russia, like the United States, is a veto-wielding UN Security Council permanent member, and its support is crucial if US warnings of tough sanctions against Tehran are to carry weight.

Obama described as "fair" the proposal offered to Iran, which would see states -- including Russia -- help Tehran to further enrich Iranian uranium for delivery to a research reactor.

Referring to sanctions, he said that "we will begin to discuss and prepare for these other pathways" as Tehran could not be counted on to fulfil its international obligations.

The West suspects Tehran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon under cover of its civilian nuclear energy programme. Iran vehemently denies the claims while Russia has said there is no evidence to support the accusations.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Saturday that Ankara was in talks with the IAEA to enrich Iran's uranium and that his country saw no objection to doing so.

IAEA Secretary General Mohamed ElBaradei, whose mandate finishes at the end of November, is to chair his last board of governor's meeting on November 26, during which Monday's report will be discussed.

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In the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh wrote that US officials had negotiated pacts with Pakistan to provide security for the nuclear arsenal in extreme circumstances.

It also raised the possibility that the threat to the security of the nuclear programme might come not from Taliban rebels battling the government, but from a "mutiny" by fundamentalist elements within the powerful military.

In response, Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that the nation's nuclear materials "are completely safe and secure.

"Pakistan therefore does not require any foreign assistance in this regard," the statement said.

"Nor will Pakistan, as a sovereign state, ever allow any country to have direct or indirect access to its nuclear and strategic facilities. Any suggestion to this effect is simply preposterous."

Pakistan's government is fiercely protective and proud of its nuclear weapons programme, seen as a much-needed deterrent and defence against its arch-foe India, which also has nuclear capabilities.

But soaring attacks by Taliban insurgents -- who struck at the heart of the military establishment in a raid and hostage drama at army headquarters last month -- have raised jitters over the weapons' safety.

Hersh wrote in the The New Yorker that officials in Washington and Islamabad told him that agreements would allow specially trained American units to provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis.

It also quoted unnamed Pakistan officials as expressing fear that the governments of either Pakistan's ally the United States or their arch-rival India might try to take control of the weapons -- a claim denied by the US.

In response, Larry Schwartz, a spokesman at the US embassy in Islamabad, told AFP that "the United States has no intention to seize Pakistani nuclear weapons or material.

"Pakistan is a key ally in our common effort to fight violent extremists and foster regional security."

The United States is regarded with deep suspicion in Pakistan, with missile strikes by unmanned US drone aircraft against Taliban and Al-Qaeda targets in the northwest tribal belt seen as an infringement of Pakistan's sovereignty.

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The communist country "successfully completed reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods by the end of August" at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

"Noticeable successes have been made in turning the extracted plutonium weapon-grade for the purpose of bolstering up the nuclear deterrent," it said.

The comments indicated growing impatience at Washington's delay in accepting Pyongyang's offer of high-level bilateral talks to end the nuclear standoff.

On Monday its foreign ministry pressed the United States to agree to such talks, and said these could lead to a resumption of stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations.

"If the US is not ready to sit at a negotiating table with the DPRK (North Korea), it will go its own way," the ministry added.

The US reacted angrily to the announcement, saying North Korea's plutonium production for atomic weapons "runs counter" to its own statements and "violates" UN Security Council resolutions.

Experts believe the 8,000 spent reactor fuel rods could produce enough plutonium for one or two nuclear bombs, in addition to the North's current stockpile which could perhaps be used to create six to eight weapons.

"It certainly runs counter to the commitment that they made in 2005, and it violates UN Security Council resolutions," US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

But he declined to say whether he believed the announcement contributed to tension with North Korea.

"What we're focused on with North Korea is getting to the point where we can relaunch the six-party talks, which will get us to our ultimate goal, which is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he said.

The North quit the six-party talks in April after the United Nations censured its long-range rocket launch, and vowed to restart the nuclear programme which it shut down under a 2007 six-party pact.

It conducted an atomic weapons test in May, the second since 2006.

In September the North also said it was in the final stages of an experimental highly enriched uranium programme -- a second way to make atomic weapons.

KCNA in a separate report Tuesday said the North was working hard to expand production of mineral resources including uranium. It said the uranium was intended to fuel a light-water reactor which is to be constructed.

Seoul officials quoted by Yonhap news agency confirmed Monday that the North had apparently reopened the plutonium reprocessing plant.

After months of bellicose moves including a series of missile tests, the North in August began making peace overtures and invited the US special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, to visit Pyongyang.

In early October leader Kim Jong-Il told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao his country was ready to return to six-party negotiations, but only after it had talked directly to the United States to improve "hostile relations."

The North has long sought direct talks with the United States and is unenthusiastic about the multilateral framework which also involves South Korea
, China, Russia and Japan.

Washington says it is open to such talks but these would be limited to bringing Pyongyang back to the six-party framework. It says it has made no decision on any visit by Bosworth.

But Russia said on Tuesday it was unrealistic for North Korea to seek improved ties with Washington, adding that Pyongyang would be better off returning to the negotiating table for six-party talks.

Many analysts suspect the North wants US recognition as a nuclear-armed state, possibly in return for guarantees of non-proliferation. Washington says it will never recognise a nuclear-armed North.

Pyongyang could also be trying to ease the impact of tougher United Nations sanctions imposed after the latest nuclear test.

China -- the North's sole major ally, leading trade partner and top energy supplier -- is often seen as crucial in pressuring the North.

But the International Crisis Group, in a report Tuesday, said Beijing was reluctant to tighten the screws on Pyongyang for fear of destabilising its regime and prompting a flood of refugees across the border.

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Col. Joel S. Westa was removed by Maj. Gen. Floyd L. Carpenter, commander of 8th Air Force. Colonel Westa assumed command in November 2007.

Colonel Westa was not relieved for any alleged misconduct or wrongdoing. The inability to foster a culture of excellence, a lack of focus on the strategic mission during his command and substandard performance during several nuclear surety inspections, including the newly activated 69th Bomb Squadron deemed "not ready" to perform its nuclear mission, contributed to the loss of confidence.

The new commander of the 5th Bomb Wing is Col. Douglas Cox, former vice commander of Andersen AFB, Guam.

"Perfection is the standard," General Carpenter said. "We will continue to demand exacting focus, attention to detail, discipline and dedication to the highest principles and standards for all activities surrounding the nuclear enterprise."

Although multiple deficiencies in the adherence of stringent nuclear standards were identified during several inspections, the safety and security of nuclear operations at Minot were never compromised.

"While the shortcomings in recent inspections did not translate to an inability to accomplish the mission, they did show a departure from the standards of perfection that we demand in the nuclear enterprise," said Gen. William M. Fraser III, commander of Air Combat Command. "Our leaders must set and enforce the standards across all of our mission areas. The nation expects and deserves nothing less."

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As Iran said it wanted a review of the proposed deal, Britain and Russia urged it to accept the offer and France warned against "delaying tactics."

Pressure on the Islamic republic increased as Iran also indicated it prefers to buy nuclear fuel supplies directly rather than send its own uranium abroad for further enrichment.

Tehran's close ally Moscow urged acceptance of the high-profile proposal which aims to apply the brakes to Iran's galloping nuclear programme.

"This is a pivotal moment for Iran," Clinton said. "Acceptance fully of this proposal would be a good indication that Iran does not wish to be isolated and does wish to cooperate.

"We urge Iran to accept the proposal... (that) they agreed to in principle," she said, adding that Gulf states were closely monitoring "the developments in Iran because they will be the ones to feel the first effects of what Iran does or does not do."

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei called on Iran to "to be as forthcoming as possible in responding soon to my recent proposal," and also appealed for all sides to make compromises.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, visiting Malaysia, called for a review of the proposed deal.

"We have considered this proposal, we have some technical and economic considerations on that," he told reporters.

"Two days ago we passed our views and observations to the IAEA, so it is very much possible to establish a technical commission to review and reconsider all these issues."

Mottaki added that Iran will "continue enrichment" of uranium for nuclear power stations requiring fuel.

Earlier Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the IAEA, told AFP in Vienna: "We are ready to buy the fuel from any supplier under the full surveillance of the IAEA, as we bought from Argentina about 20 years ago with the cooperation of the IAEA."

He did not clarify whether Iran was rejecting the UN draft plan, which proposes shipping Tehran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for further processing and conversion into fuel.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the six world powers negotiating with Iran over its nuclear fuel programme would not tolerate delaying tactics.

"If the Iranian response is to stall, as it seems to be, we will not accept this," he told journalists in Paris.

World powers back the draft as they fear Tehran could enrich its existing LEU to very high levels under the pretext of making fuel for a Tehran reactor, and use it to produce atomic weapons.

Tehran denies it wants a nuclear bomb.

Soltanieh said Iran is ready for another meeting in Vienna to discuss the technical details of acquiring nuclear fuel.

Iran has delayed signing the UN-drafted deal amid opposition from some leaders who suspect the US-backed proposal will ultimately lead to the suspension of Tehran's uranium enrichment work.

Enrichment is the most controversial aspect of its nuclear project as the enriched material can be used both to fuel civilian reactors and also to make the core of an atomic bomb.

Mottaki said Iran still has three options for obtaining the fuel it needs: buying directly from other nations, further enriching LEU on its own, or having the fuel processed by another country.

Britain and Russia demanded that Iran give a prompt response to the UN-drafted deal, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in Moscow.

"We both want to see a prompt response from the Iranian regime in respect to the Tehran research reactor proposal," he told a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri urged Tehran to respect international conventions so that "peace can reign in this region."

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Colonel Christopher Ayres, commander of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, was removed Wednesday "due to loss of confidence in his ability to command," Air Force Space Command said in a statement.

The Air Force has tried to improve its handling of the country's nuclear arsenal after a series of mishaps and blunders led to the sacking of the service's top civilian and military leaders last year.

"We must uphold the highest standards within the nuclear enterprise," said General Robert Kehler, head of Air Force Space Command, who approved the firing.

The removal of the wing commander came days after an Air Force investigation blamed "driver error" for an August accident in which a truck carrying parts for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) went off the road and tipped on its side.

In the bizarre accident, the driver had become distracted by "a large insect" that landed on his back, the Air Force said.

Another truck carrying an ICBM rocket booster crashed last year, the Air Force Times reported.

The 91st Missile Wing, which oversees 150 Minuteman II ballistic missiles, also failed an inspection by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in 2008, Captain Toni Tones, a spokeswoman for Air Force Space Command, told AFP.

The wing passed a second inspection this year, she said.

In another embarrassing incident, three Air Force officers at the wing fell asleep in July 2008 while in possession of classified components containing missile launch codes for ICBMs. The three officers were disciplined over the incident, Tones said.

Colonel Ferdinand Stoss, vice commander of the 90th Missile Wing in Wyoming, has been named to take over at the 91st wing.

In January, an outside panel headed by former defense secretary James Schlesinger concluded that the Air Force had for years given the nuclear forces a lower priority and failed to manage the mission with rigor.

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Clinton told reporters in London that the militants' brazen bid to storm the Pakistani military headquarters in Rawalpindi on Saturday highlighted the scale of the threat.

The attack brought renewed US focus on Pakistan, which has won praise from Washington for its new crackdown on militants, just as the Obama administration tries to revise its strategy in neighboring Afghanistan.

"Yesterday was another reminder that extremists ... are increasingly threatening the authority of the state," Clinton said at a press conference with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

"But we see no evidence that they (the militants) are going to take over the state," the chief US diplomat said following around 90 minutes of talks that dealt extensively with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"We have confidence in the Pakistani government and the military's control over nuclear weapons," Clinton added.

Miliband recalled that the United States and Britain had long agreed that militants including the Taliban, which mount attacks into Afghanistan from Pakistan's border areas, represent a "mortal threat" to Islamabad.

But "it is a mortal threat that can and will be defeated by united action by the civilian and military leadership in Pakistan with the support of their people and the support of the international community."

The US Congress has just approved 7.5 billion dollars in economic and military aid for Pakistan, which earned US plaudits in recent months for their military offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley.

Analysts said Saturday's attack and subsequent siege was deeply embarrassing for the military and showed the Islamist militant threat to the nuclear-armed nation was far from quashed, despite Pakistan's claims it is winning the fight.

The strike at the heart of the military establishment left at least 19 people dead. Pakistani troops stormed the complex on Sunday, ending the day-long siege and freeing 39 people held by the militants.

It was the third dramatic militant attack in less than a week. A suicide car bomb on Friday killed 52 civilians at a busy market in the northwest city of Peshawar and an attack on a UN office in Islamabad last Monday left five aid workers dead.

In London on a European tour which will also take her to Russia, Clinton also warned Iran over its nuclear programme, saying the international community "will not wait indefinitely" for the Islamic republic to meet its obligations.

Global powers were outraged after Iran, just days ahead of talks in Geneva on October 1, revealed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it was building a second uranium enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom.

Clinton said the six-party talks in the Swiss city on October 1 were a "constructive beginning" but she said they "must be followed by action".

"Words are not enough," she added. "We are speaking with a single voice and delivering a clear message to Iran: the international community will not wait indefinitely for evidence that Iran is prepared to live up to its international obligations."

Western powers suspect Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at making atomic weapons, a charge strongly denied by Tehran.

Clinton also held talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown before heading to Dublin and Belfast, where she is to make a major speech on Monday.

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Russia will soon adopt a new military doctrine that aims to transform the Armed Forces into a more effective and mobile military force. Their structures will be "optimized" through the use of combined arms units performing similar tasks.

"In respect to the possibility of preventive or nuclear strikes we will formulate some provisions that will be somewhat different from those contained in the current doctrine," Nikolai Patrushev said.

The draft doctrine, called "The new face of the Russian Armed Forces until 2030," is still being developed by the General Staff and will be given, according to Patrushev, to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for consideration by the end of 2009.

The current military doctrine was adopted in 2000. It outlines the role of the Russian military in ensuring the defense of the country and, if necessary, preparing for and waging war, although it stresses that the Russian military doctrine is strictly defensive.

The doctrine lists factors that the Russian Federation perceives as potential threats, both internal and external and declares support for a multipolar world, in preference to a unipolar world dominated by a single superpower that is quick to resort to military force.

The current document also emphasizes Russia's commitment to military reform, with continued use of conscription, but a gradual shift towards a professional army.

But the Security Council believes that since 2000, drastic changes have occurred in the geopolitical and military situation in the world and in the nature of threats against national security, which makes it necessary to revise the specific tasks facing the Russian Armed Forces and related security agencies.

"We would like to make this new military doctrine transparent so that people in the country and abroad will know what we have developed and how we want to work. We will set goals and lay out how to achieve them," Patrushev said.

President Dmitry Medvedev announced last year that Russia would make the modernization of its nuclear deterrent and Armed Forces a priority in the decade up to 2020.

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Delivered by the 82nd Training Wing's 363rd Training Squadron, the four-week course targets squadron-level munitions officers and NCOs responsible for the day-to-day tracking, monitoring and reporting of nuclear munitions.

"This is a completely new course," said Maj. Wes Adams, 363rd TRS Aircraft Maintenance and Munitions Officer Course director. "Previously, the officers and NCOs taking on accountability duties would learn on the job. This course provides a solid, academic foundation for these Airmen and ensures the training is consistent across the Air Force."

At the heart of the curriculum is a computer system that mirrors the database used to track and account for nuclear weapons across the Department of Defense called Defense Integration and Management of Nuclear Data Services, or DIAMONDS.

The DIAMONDS Accountability Training System allows students to learn the exact procedures they will use on the job without interfering with the live database.

"It looks like DIAMONDS, it smells like DIAMONDS and it tastes like DIAMONDS, but it's not DIAMONDS," Major Adams said. "That's important because it means students can learn the system and manipulate realistic data without any risk."

As the Air Force Program Manager for DIAMONDS, the 708th Nuclear Sustainment Squadron at Kirtland AFB, N.M., played a key role in working with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to get the training hardware and software in place and ensure it accurately mirrored DIAMONDS.

Though the process was complex and sometimes challenging, Maj. Jordan Murphy, 708th NSUS project officer, said the end result was more than worth it.

"DIAMONDS is how we do nuclear accountability in the Air Force," he said, "so it's absolutely crucial that new accountability students learn the system. With the DIAMONDS Accountability Training System in place, the students will leave Sheppard with meaningful experience and a real understanding of how to track and account for the Air Force's nuclear weapons."

Of all the challenges involved in getting the course up and running, Major Murphy said the timeline was the toughest.

"There was a lot of timeline pressure on us, understandably given the nature of the course," he said. "In the end, we were able to field it three months earlier than planned."

A lot of the high-level intervention came from the office of Col. Stephen Williams, Nuclear Weapons, Missiles and Munitions Division chief at the Pentagon.

"A lot of the heavy lifting on this came from the instructors and supervisors at Sheppard," he said. "But having been an operations officer at the 365th Training Squadron at Sheppard, I knew that a lot of great training ideas never get off the ground because people don't have access to the resources it takes to make them happen. That's where we came in -- formally identifying the DIAMONDS training capability as a USAF service priority to DTRA, then connecting the resources to the project. The rest is the program manager organizing the 82nd TRG subject matter experts and the DTRA computer experts to build and install the needed capability."

As the functional managers for the officer and enlisted munitions career fields, Colonel Williams' office had a strong interest in getting the course off the ground, and provided the money and influence that made it possible.

"Getting the course infrastructure, including DATS, set up cost about $457,000, which is actually a pretty small number considering the importance of the course and the fact that we're dealing with nuclear accountability," he said. "It's money very well spent. We were giving our young munitions officers and NCOs critical responsibilities, but we owed them better tools to do the job well -- specifically training. This course does that."

According to Colonel Williams, another benefit of the course is that it will help restore some of the culture and institutional knowledge the Air Force lost over the years -- a loss identified in many internal reviews as a contributing factor to the serious breakdowns in 2007 and 2008.

It's a goal echoed by the person on the business end of the whole effort, Ed Wang, 363rd TRS course instructor.

"Of course our main goal is to provide the specific training our munitions officers and NCOs need to do their jobs today, and do them perfectly," he said. "But we're also looking at tomorrow -- at building future leaders who know the nuclear business from the ground up and who understand the demands of managing the nuclear enterprise."

The Nuclear Accountability Course is the second nuclear-related course instituted at Sheppard this year. The Nuclear Fundamentals Course, launched in May, provides basic nuclear weapons training for all new munitions officers as part of their initial training. The 363rd TRS also provides Air Force Specialty Code-awarding courses for nuclear munitions officers and enlisted nuclear weapons specialists.

In addition to nuclear munitions experts, the 82nd Training Wing at Sheppard delivers 80,000 graduates annually in aircraft and aerospace ground equipment maintenance, conventional munitions, avionics, civil engineering, medical, logistics, telecommunications, fuels and vehicle operations.

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The North's leader Kim Jong-Il personally hosted an elaborate red-carpet airport welcome for Wen Sunday, but it was unclear whether Beijing would persuade its ally to rejoin the six-party talks it quit in April.

In talks Sunday with Premier Kim Yong-Il and other senior officials, the North again expressed willingness to achieve denuclearisation through "bilateral and multilateral dialogues", Pyongyang's state media reported early Monday.

The North, however, also blamed the United States for the standoff and linked denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula to the pace of global atomic disarmament efforts.

China, the United States and the North's other negotiating partners -- South Korea, Japan and Russia -- want it to come back to six-party talks hosted by Beijing.

Pyongyang strained ties with Beijing when it staged its second nuclear test in May, after quitting the six-party talks the previous month. China supported tougher United Nations sanctions imposed following the test.

Since August the North has made peace overtures to the United States and South Korea, in what some analysts see as an attempt to ease the impact of sanctions.

But the North has lately been stressing its claim that it needs atomic weapons as a shield against US hostility. It also demands formal recognition as a nuclear-armed state, something Washington and Seoul have adamantly rejected.

Six-party deals which the North agreed in 2005 and 2007 refer only to nuclear disarmament on the Korean peninsula, not in the wider world. The United States withdrew atomic weaponry from South Korea in the early 1990s.

Wen said Sunday that "dialogue and consultation" is the only way to solve the peninsula's nuclear issue, according to China's official Xinhua news agency.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the Chinese premier is expected to hold talks later Monday with leader Kim Jong-Il. The agency has predicted Kim could make an "important announcement" during Wen's visit.

It said he was expected to state willingness to give up nuclear weapons and make detailed suggestions, while delivering his position on whether he wants six-party talks or a different type of dialogue.

The North is pressing for bilateral talks with the US to end the nuclear standoff. Washington says such talks are possible but only if their goal is to restart the six-party forum.

China has termed Wen's visit a "goodwill" trip to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations, but nuclear issues are clearly high on the agenda.

Wen is the most senior Chinese figure to visit the North since President Hu Jintao in 2005.

He is accompanied on his three-day visit by Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Wu Dawei, China's envoy to the stalled six-nation talks.

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