(See also: Russia Mulls Rumsfeld Missile Plan - 29/12/00)

WASHINGTON - The Defense secretary nominee lists the protection ``of our space assets创 as one of his top priorities. Donald Rumsfeld, President-elect Bush's nominee for secretary of defense, is a leading proponent not only of missile defenses but also of U.S. efforts to take control of outer space by developing technology to attack and defend satellites. Together, these initiatives could bring a dramatic militarization of space over the next two decades, a prospect that some defense experts have long urged and others have condemned.

The Pentagon is using missile defense ``as a wedge to accelerate our activities in space,创 said Bruce Blair, the head of the nonprofit Center for Defense Information.

``It is inevitable,创 countered Richard Haass, a National Security Council staff member in the former President Bush磗 administration and now head of national security programs at the Brookings Institution.

The combination of missile defenses and America's growing dependency on satellites ``means space is no longer a sanctuary and is too central that we won磘 be challenged创 by other countries developing antisatellite weapons, Haass said.

The system that the Clinton administration was developing to protect the 50 states from ballistic missile attack would have been strictly land-based, with interceptor missiles launched from Alaska. It was to include some satellites for tracking enemy missiles, but no weapons based in space.

President-elect Bush, on the other hand, has said his administration will strive for a far more ambitious shield, possibly using space-based weaponry. Such weapons do not exist, but the United States has been working for years on powerful lasers that might someday be mounted on aircraft or satellites.

Rumsfeld chaired a commission that helped build political support for a missile defense by issuing a 1998 report warning that Iran and North Korea were closer than previously believed to having missiles that could reach the United States.

Now, another congressionally mandated panel headed by Rumsfeld is finishing a report on threats to U.S. satellites, which are increasingly vital to military and civilian communications. The report, expected in mid-January, will endorse ``U.S. control of space, including defending our own satellites and engaging those of any enemy,创 according to a colleague of Rumsfeld. At a news conference announcing his nomination Thursday, Rumsfeld himself listed ``defense of our space assets创 as one of his top priorities.

John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense research organization, said some members of Congress pushed for the latest commission, thinking the United States should work harder to develop ``antisatellite weapons, lasers and other space weapons创 and consider establishing ``a separate space force, much as we have a separate air force.创

In Pike's opinion, however, weapons in space would be ``a singularly misguided track when we are the only nation with satellites worth shooting at.创

Other countries - particularly Russia and China, but also many U.S. allies - oppose the U.S. missile-defense effort and warn that it could set off an international arms race in space.

The Outer Space Treaty, signed in 1967 by the United States and other major powers, prohibits placing nuclear weapons in orbit.

The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which Bush wants to change or discard, outlaws space-based lasers to attack strategic intercontinental missiles, and a 1997 side agreement carries that concept over to theater missiles.

But no treaty bans antisatellite weapons, which both the United States and Russia have been researching and testing for more than 20 years. The original impetus for developing these so-called ASATs was the prospect of space-based missile-defense systems. When President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, or ``Star Wars,创 plan was dropped by the first Bush administration, the race to develop ASATs receded back to research.

Last August, the Army used a ground-based chemical laser to hit an aging U.S. military satellite in an apparent ASAT test that officials claimed had not been cleared in advance by the White House or the State Department.

When the test was publicized, the Pentagon said its purpose was to develop defenses for U.S. satellites. Russian diplomats, however, complained that the United States was preparing for war in space.

The fiscal 2001 Defense Department budget contains funds for numerous Army and Air Force ASAT programs, including $20 million for the Army's ground-based kinetic energy antisatellite technology program, which began more than 20 years ago.