And oh yes, George Bush 43 is also intent on dealing with the Iraqi regime left standing by George Bush 41 as well. More about Iraq and the new "New World Order" next.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Israel said on Friday it feared Iran was out to acquire nuclear arms in order to destroy it and called on the United Nations to pressure Tehran to abandon plans to develop atomic weapons.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said a Dec. 14 speech by Iran's still powerful former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani "leaves no room for any doubt as to Iran's hatred of Israel and its declared goal to destroy it."

The speech "clearly contradicts the Iranian claim that its plans to acquire nuclear technologies are designed only for peaceful purposes," Peres said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Although Rafsanjani is no longer an elected government official, he still wields considerable influence as the head of Iran's powerful expediency council, which sets major policy, including foreign relations. He is also a top adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Peres said Rafsanjani had told a crowd in Tehran two weeks ago that the Islamic world was seeking nuclear weapons to destroy Israel and undermine Western interests in the Middle East.

Peres quoted Rafsanjani as saying that "when the Islamic world acquires atomic weapons, the strategy of the West will hit a dead-end -- since the use of a single atomic bomb has the power to destroy Israel completely, while it will only cause partial damage to the Islamic world."

"The West's support for Israel is liable to bring about World War III, which will be fought between those believers who seek a martyr's death, on the one hand, and those who represent the epitome of arrogance on the other hand," Peres quoted the former Iranian president as saying.

"The establishment of Israel is the most hideous occurrence in history. The Islamic world will not tolerate the continued existence of Israel in the region and will vomit it out from its midst," Rafsanjani said, according to Peres.

Peres said he appealed to Annan "to demand that Iran abandon its plan to arm itself with unconventional weapons, and that immediate steps be taken to ensure that a plan of this kind is not put into effect."

"I fear that it might be too late to deal with the danger we could face," Peres wrote Annan.

Iran holds marches every year on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in solidarity with the Palestinians. The rallies are organized by conservatives who take a tougher line against Israel and the West than reformers allied with current Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

The United States, Britain and other Western nations have urged Tehran to help end 15 months of Middle East violence by stopping its backing for militant Palestinian groups targeting Israeli civilians in suicide attacks and for Hizbollah, which attacks Israeli military targets from southern Lebanon.

But Rafsanjani defended the militants as freedom fighters waging a legitimate struggle against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

"Israel which is crushing innocent people with all kinds of weapons is defend ed (by the West) but the Palestinians who strike blows on Israel with empty hands and at the expense of their lives are called 'terrorists,"' he said.

"Israel should not be fooled by its modern weapons and atomic bombs. Palestinians have found a stronger weapon, and that is suicide operations," he said.

[AFI Research, London, 12-29-2001]: With the Indian Prime Minister gaining all party support for action and the Headquarters Staff of the Army's Eastern Command transferred to the Western front line the final pieces are slotting into place if India has finally decided to use massive military force to punish Pakistan for its long term support of terrorist outrages in Kashmir and throughout India. The movement of the Eastern Army HQ has happened before on two major occasions, just prior to the 1965 and 1971 Wars with Pakistan and this time it has been accompanied by an enormous movement of men, equipment and munitions westward. The Army's redeployment has been matched by both the Indian Air Force with some 90% of its considerable combat strength available for immediate operations and the Navy who are reported to already have an offshore picket line of seven ex-Russian KILO class attack submarines off the Pakistan coast. The Indian Intelligence Service, RAW has pointed repeatedly to its Pakistan opponents,the ISI as being the power behind both the Kashmiri Muslim terrorists and of course, the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Indian Cabinet, CCS, CoS and RAW believe that the useful precedent set by the United States positive response to the terrorist attacks of the 9-11 give India the international legitimacy to attack a nation that has a long record of harbouring and supporting terrorism. India has established a close understanding with Israel and a good working relationship between RAW and Mossad. These new links will be put to good effect in a War against Islamic terrorism which will not be restricted just to Washington's plans or wishes. Both India and Israel have endured Islamic terrorism for best part of 50 years and will not take kindly to any attempts by United States to restrict their ability to pursue an anti-terrorist campaign in a similar manner to that authorised by President Bush.

[The Guardian - Saturday December 29, 2001]: The leading international powers told Pakistan yesterday to crack down on home-grown terrorists contesting Indian control of Kashmir and praised New Delhi's attempts to defuse the deepening regional crisis through diplomatic means.

As both sides shelled each other's positions in the disputed Jammu-Kashmir region - after two days of comparative stability - Pakistan's military spokesman claimed that aggressive deployments by India had now reached a point where it would prove difficult to back off.

But a more positive note emerged last night when Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf announced he was ready to meet the Indian prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, at a regional summit in Nepal next week.

"I don't mind meeting with him but you can't clap with one hand," he said. "He [Vajpayee] must show willingness on his side and there will be willingness on our side."

Asked whether he was prepared to act against extremist pro-Kashmiri militant groups, Gen Musharraf said: "We understand our responsibility. We know what we have to do."

Diplomats representing the G8 countries - Russia plus the US, Canada, Japan and leading EU countries - voiced "serious concern" in Moscow at the confrontation that was triggered by the attack on the Indian parliament on December 13.

India blames the attack on militants sponsored by Pakistani intelligence - a charge Islamabad denies. The attack left nine Indians and five attackers dead and raised tensions between the region's two nuclear-armed rivals to the point where India has now ordered a general mobilisation for the first time since the two countries were at war in 1971.

After consulting with fellow foreign ministers in Moscow Jack Straw reinforced their collective statement with a sharp warning of his own urging Gen Musharraf to step up his campaign against what he called complacency and double standards towards "Kashmiri freedom fighters" inside Pakistan itself.

"These violent groups have no place in a modern society. They must be stopped. I urge President Musharraf to continue his action against them with resolve and determination," the foreign secretary declared.

Meanwhile, India ordered 5,000 more villagers to evacuate their homes on the Kash mir front lines and threatened a "decisive battle" to smash Pakistan's fostering of a "proxy war" in Kashmir.

Pakistani officials told the BBC last night they estimated that 95% of India's air force was now deployed in an offensive configuration, together with heavy deployments of ground troops.

Pakistan's military spokesman, General Rashid Quereshi, said the nature of the Indian deployment suggested a desire for offensive action, and that India, whose government is now dominated by Hindu nationalists, would find it difficult to back down.

Yesterday Mr Straw described the New Delhi attack as "an outrage, not only against India but against the entire democratic world" - though he was careful to couple his condemnation with praise for Gen Musharraf's "very considerable statesmanship" over the latest crisis to imperil his regime.

The G8 statement also called on Pakistan "to take further measures against terrorist groups acting on its territory which target India in particular". It was issued at the insistence of the Russians, historic allies of India, whose unalloyed support for the US war in Afghanistan since September 11 has earned warm personal plaudits for President Vladimir Putin from George Bush and Tony Blair.

The Russian foreign ministry said yesterday's statement showed "the unity of leading countries in having no double standards in the fight against terrorism in all its forms".

Crossfire on the Indo-Pakistani border, a build-up of forces on both sides, a continuing war of words, and tit-for-tat diplomatic moves characterised the worsening situation yesterday. Retaliatory firing by Pakistani troops killed a three-year-old child in an Indian border village, police said.

As New Delhi ordered the latest evacuation - on top of 10,000 people already told to move - the Indian interior minister, Lal Krishna Advani, stepped up the sabre-rattling.

"We will now wage a decisive battle against [Pakistan's] proxy war, irrespective of the support we get from other countries in this war against terrorism," he told paramilitary police units in New Delhi.

"There is no measuring scale that we have to say how near or how far we are to war," the Indian foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, said earlier. "I will just say this: Don't worry. We are ready."

India is demanding that Pakistan shut down two militant Muslim groups - Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba - which it blames for the December 13 attack - and arrest their leaders. Pakistan says it will take action if it receives proof.

Yesterday, despite both countries' closure of their airspace to the other's airlines, India signalled that President Musharraf would be able to overfly India en route to the Nepal summit that gives both sides the opportunity to defuse the crisis and step back from the brink of war.