Bush will warn in a speech at the National Defense University that current non-proliferation efforts are inadequate at a time when terrorists have ramped up efforts to acquire such arms, the aide said on condition of anonymity

"The traditional tools that we used -- containment and deterrence -- that worked in the old context are not necessarily going to provide adequate protection" in the era after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the aide said.

He will warn that the threat from weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now comes mainly from "dangerous and secretive regimes" like Iran, Iraq, and North Korea; and "black market, WMD entrepreneurs" like Pakistan's Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Bush will call for giving international non-proliferation regimes real teeth, while the United States and its allies enhance intelligence gathering and sharing, the senior US official said.

Spy networks were crucial to bringing down A.Q. Khan, who admitted last week that he played a key role in black market trading in nuclear secrets with Iran, North Korea and Libya, the Bush aide told reporters.

Bush will "pay tribute" to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who has vowed to take "the kinds of steps that will really unravel this network and prevent it from being a source of weapons in the future," the official said.

The White House official sidestepped questions about whether Washington was unhappy that Musharraf later pardoned Khan.

In his speech, Bush will renew his September 2003 call for a UN Security Council resolution outlawing WMD proliferation and push for revamping the UN nuclear watchdog group, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Institutions like the IAEA "need to be more effective and the president is going to make some proposals to make them more effective," the official said.

Bush will also call for bolstering the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative, which aims to halt air and sea shipments of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, their components, and the missiles to carry them using existing laws and international treaties.

He will seek support for broadening US-backed efforts to keep disaffected former Soviet scientists with WMD know-how from selling their skills to the highest bidder, expanding the initiative to countries like Libya.

And he will call on the international community to close a loophole in the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that allows states like Iran or North Korea to develop nuclear power for civilian use.

"The rationale they give is a civil nuclear power program. What we've learned, of course, is that these are really the route to a nuclear weapon capability," the senior Bush aide said.

The aide downplayed the timing of the speech, which comes amid several investigations into why pre-war claims about Iraq's supposed WMD arsenals have not been borne out, raising questions about US intelligence and the administration's use of such information.

Asked whether Bush aimed to counter some of the criticisms by highlighting intellience successes in Libya, Iran and North Korea, the aide replied: "That's what people will write."

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