CHINA has contingency plans to dispatch troops into North Korea and secure nuclear weapons in the event of instability in the hardline communist state, according to US experts who have talked to Chinese military researchers.

US PRESIDENT George Bush has said Iran may pose the greatest challenge to the United States.

US President George Bush today said Iran may pose the greatest challenge to the United States and diplomacy to thwart the Islamic nation’s nuclear programme must prevail to avoid confrontation.

The key issue in the discovery of 11 warheads in an Iraqi bunker is whether they were intended to be filled with lethal chemical agents or explosives, former UN weapons inspectors said.