President George W. Bush has requested the Joint Chiefs of Staff revise plans for a possible attack on Iran, with the focus on "surgical" raids against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps which Washington accuses of targeting US forces in Iraq, the magazine wrote.

Previous contingency plans called for a more elaborate bombing campaign against suspected nuclear sites in Iran as well as other infrastructure, the magazine reported, citing unnamed former officials and government consultants.

The change in focus comes as Bush and his top aides have begun to describe the war in Iraq in public statements as increasingly a "strategic battle between the United States and Iran," said the article by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.

During a video conference over the summer, Bush allegedly told Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Iraq, that he was considering striking Iranian targets across the border and that the British "were on board," according to the article.

But Israeli leaders were dismayed that Washington had decided not to target Iran's nuclear program and French officials had expressed doubts about the possible limited air strikes, it said.

While Bush has not yet issued an "execute order" for a military operation inside Iran, the pace of attack planning has increased markedly and the CIA has dramatically expanded a unit focusing on Iran, it said.

The amended plan would call for using the US Navy's "sea-launched cruise missiles and more precisely targeted ground attacks and bombing strikes, including plans to destroy the most important Revolutionary Guard training camps, supply depots, and command and control facilities," it said.

Vice President Dick Cheney was pushing to confront the Iranians despite deep concerns from Republicans that any action could be politically disastrous for the party given popular opposition to the Iraq war, a former intelligence official said.

"There is a desperate effort by Cheney et al. to bring military action to Iran as soon as possible," the official said. "Meanwhile, the politicians are saying, 'You can't do it, because every Republican is going to be defeated, and we're only one fact away from going over the cliff in Iraq.'"

Bush and his advisers have adopted the new "counter-terrorism" approach recognizing the US public is not convinced that Iran poses an imminent nuclear threat and that the US intelligence community believes Tehran is at least five years away from obtaining an atomic bomb.

But officials are betting the case for hitting Iranian forces blamed for attacking US soldiers would be easier to make, the magazine wrote.

"This time, unlike the attack in Iraq, we're going to play the victim. The name of our game seems to be to get the Iranians to overplay their hand," said Zbigniew Brezinski, a former national security adviser under ex-president Jimmy Carter and a critic of the Bush administration's foreign policy.

Brezinski said that Iran would probably respond to a US attack "by intensifying the conflict in Iraq and also in Afghanistan, their neighbors, and that could draw in Pakistan.

"We will be stuck in a regional war for twenty years," he said.

The magazine quoted a Defense Department spokesman saying the administration remains committed to a diplomatic solution to disputes with Iran.

earlier related report
Iraq FM fears 'tension' over Iran nuclear program
Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Sunday urged Iran not to fan flames of confrontation with the West over its nuclear program, saying the conflict was leading to rising global tensions.

"From where we are, there is a rising tension between the (United Nations) Security Council and Iran over the nuclear fire," he told CNN.

"We, as Iraqis, are worried about this rising tension. And we are doing our best to decrease that because that will impact our security situation more positively," he added.

He said tensions have been heightened by recent Iranian pronouncements on its nuclear program, and urged Tehran to soften its tone.

"Our advice has been to the Iranians, as recently as a few days ago, that really you need to (take) these statements very seriously and deal credibly and transparently with the international community," he said.

Zebari also urged Iran "to learn from the mistakes of Saddam Hussein in the past ... in dealing with the weapons of mass destruction," he said.

The United States and its European allies believe that Iran is hiding plans to build atomic weapons. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes and has refused to halt sensitive uranium enrichment work.

He added that Iraq, which has seen relations improve with Tehran, finds itself caught in the cross-fire in the spat between the West and Iran.

"On the one hand, Iran has a very clear policy in supporting the government politically and supporting the political process and majority rule government. This government is friendly to them," Zebari said.

"On the other hand, really we see evidence that there has been intervention by Iran and by others as well ... to bloody Americans or make lives more difficult there," he said.

"This is the wrong policy," he said, adding that such acts would only increase "the prospects of a confrontation" and "can only provoke the Americans more and more."

Zebari added that he hoped the situation would improve following an upcoming international meeting in Turkey.

"We are planning a major meeting in Istanbul in early November for Iraq's neighbors, plus the P5 (five permanent members of the the UN Security Council) and the G8 (leading global international powers)," he said.

"We will ... confront all of our neighbors with evidence, with facts that this is what Iraq requires from you: to stop meddling, to support the government in good faith," Zebari said.

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