Prepared by the prestigious center of strategic thinking in the U.S. intelligence community, the National Intelligence Council, the report says that most terrorist attacks will continue to employ primarily conventional weapons, incorporating new twists to keep counter-terrorist planners off balance.

The 119-page report, issued every five years, warns that terrorists probably could be more original not in the technologies or weapons they employ, but rather in their operational concepts, such as the scope, design or support arrangements for attacks.

One such possibility is a large number of simultaneous attacks, possibly in widely separate locations. While vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices will remain popular as asymmetric weapons, terrorists are likely to move up the technology ladder to employ advanced explosives and unmanned aerial vehicles, the report says.

"The religious zeal of extremist Muslim terrorists increases their desire to perpetrate attacks resulting in high casualties. Historically, religiously inspired terrorism has been most destructive because such groups are bound by few constraints," the NIC warns.

"The most worrisome trend," according to this report, has been an intensified search by some groups to obtain weapons of mass destruction.

The "greatest concern" of the U.S. intelligence community, is that these organizations might acquire biological agents or a nuclear device. The NIC, however, acknowledges that the acquisition of a nuclear device is less likely than that of biological weapons.

For making either of these weapons, extremists would require only a household kitchen-size laboratory and could produce a device "smaller than a toaster," the NIC warns.

The report says that the possibility of terrorists using biological agents is stronger, and the range of their options will grow.

Because the recognition of anthrax, smallpox or other diseases is typically delayed, under a "nightmare scenario" an attack could be well under way before authorities would be cognizant of it, the NIC points out.

The U.S. intelligence community says that the use of radiological dispersal devices can be effective in creating panic because of the public's misconception of the capacity of such attacks to kill large numbers of people.

"With advances in the design of simplified nuclear weapons, terrorists will continue to seek to acquire fissile material in order to construct a nuclear weapon," the NIC report says.

This could encourage countries without nuclear weapons, especially in the Middle East and Northeast Asia, to seek them as it becomes clear that their neighbors and regional rivals already are doing so.

"The assistance of proliferators, including former private entrepreneurs such as the A.Q. Khan network, will reduce the time required for additional countries to develop nuclear weapons," the report says.

"Concurrently, they can be expected to continue attempting to purchase or steal a weapon, particularly in Russia or Pakistan. Given the possibility that terrorists could acquire nuclear weapons, the use of such weapons by extremists before 2020 cannot be ruled out.

"We expect that terrorists also will try to acquire and develop the capabilities to conduct cyber attacks to cause physical damage to computer systems and to disrupt critical information networks.

"The United States and its interests abroad will remain prime terrorist targets, but more terrorist attacks might forced, large-scale expulsions of populations are particularly likely to generate migration and massive, intractable humanitarian needs."

Pakistan tested its nuclear devices in May 1998, soon after similar tests by archrival India. Since then, both India and Pakistan have continued to develop their nuclear program and also are working on an ambitious missiles program to make a reliable delivery system for their nuclear weapons.

In February last year, the creator of the Pakistani nuclear program, A.Q. Khan, confessed to selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Because of Khan's popularity in Pakistan as the father of its nuclear bomb, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf granted him a pardon but placed him under house arrest, forbidding the disgraced scientist from meeting anyone or answering telephone calls.

Pakistan, however, categorically said it would not extradite Khan to the United States or any other country for interrogation, although it offered to cooperate with international agencies investigating Khan's network of nuclear proliferators.

Responding to demands for Khan's extradition, both the White House and the State Department have said they are happy with the cooperation they have so far received from Pakistan in dismantling the Khan network and do not yet intend to seek his extradition.

Last week, federal investigators said a Pakistani businessman, who ran an import business in New York was urging al-Qaida to acquire 50 nuclear weapons for use against American troops.

Saifullah Paracha, 57, who was arrested 19 months ago and is now being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, told the al-Qaida operatives that he knew where to get nuclear weapons, according to documents filed with the U.S. District Court in Washington, investigators said.

Papers filed last week in a court in Washington identify Paracha as a participant in a plot to smuggle explosives into the United States and to help al-Qaida hide large amounts of money.

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