"In terms of a country, obviously a nuclear-armed country like North Korea or Iran pose both a real or a potential threat," Clinton told CNN's "State of the Union", making it clear the Iranians don't yet possess an atomic weapon.

"But I think that most of us believe the greater threats are the trans-national non-state networks," she said, referring to Al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Afghanistan, North Africa, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Clinton voiced concerns about Al-Qaeda's level of "connectivity" and warned that Osama bin Laden's followers were increasing the sophistication of the attacks they were planning.

While Al-Qaeda was not getting any stronger and its capacity had been "degraded" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Clinton cautioned the terror network was evolving to become "more creative, more flexible, more agile.

"They are unfortunately a very committed, clever, diabolical group of terrorists who are always looking for weaknesses and openings and we just have to stay alert."

The US city of Detroit had a narrow escape on Christmas Day when a young Nigerian claiming allegiance to Al-Qaeda, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, botched an attempt to bring down a packed transatlantic airliner as it began its descent.

"The biggest nightmare that any of us have is that one of these terrorist member organizations within this syndicate of terror will get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction," Clinton said.

She gave the interview before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered Iran's atomic chief on Sunday to begin higher uranium enrichment, raising the stakes in its long-running dispute with the West over its nuclear ambitions.

World powers are losing patience with Iran for failing to agree to a proposal brokered by the UN's nuclear watchdog that is aimed at defusing the crisis over the Islamic republic's suspect enrichment activities.

Clinton said it was "subject to some debate" how close Iran was to getting the bomb but suggested Tehran was purposefully stalling on what she described as a "very reasonable offer" from the international community.

Iran appeared to reject in October a deal proposed by the UN's nuclear watchdog for it to export low-enriched uranium to France and Russia to be further purified into fuel for a research reactor in Tehran.

Enrichment outside of Iran is a central plank of the deal Western powers are pushing for out of fears that unsupervised enrichment could feed a covert nuclear weapons program.

Enriched uranium produces fuel for a nuclear reactor but the process can also be used to make the fissile core of an atomic bomb, which Iran denies it is seeking.

The United States has not ruled out military action should Iran continue to defy the international community and Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged world powers on Sunday to stand firm on the nuclear issue.

"The international community has offered the Iranian government multiple opportunities to provide reassurance of its intentions. The results have been very disappointing," Gates said in Rome.

"If the international community will stand together and bring pressure on the Iranian government, I believe there is still time for sanctions and pressure to work. But we must all work together."

As for North Korea, it quit six-party nuclear talks last April and tested a second atomic weapon the following month. Last year it declared willingness in principle to return, but has set conditions rejected by Seoul and Washington.

In addition to the lifting of sanctions, it says the United States must agree to hold talks about a peace pact before it comes back.

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