Rumsfeld charged that Iran is inserting people into Iraq to do "damaging and dangerous" things to US forces and warned that "our forces will certainly take the appropriate steps to stop them."

General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, followed with a more explicit warning in Senate testimony, declaring that US forces will treat any Iranian forces that fight them inside Iraq as enemy forces.

Both men were asked by Senator Robert Byrd, a Democrat, whether any of the 72 billion dollars in emergency funds being requested by Congress for military operations will be used to plan attacks against Iran.

"Sir, the answer is: No, sir, with inside the borders of Iran. But if there are Iranians fighting against us in Iraq then, of course, we would treat them like the enemy in Iraq," Pace said.

"We know that they have provided some munitions, some weapons and that there are some agents, Iranian, in Iraq," he said.

Pace added that he did not know whether the Iranians intended to engage in fighting.

On Tuesday, Rumsfeld directly accused the Islamic government in Tehran for the first time of sending Iranian Revolutionary Guard into Iraq to make trouble.

The US military has said in the past that advanced roadside bombs with shaped armor-penetrating explosives and sophisticated triggering devices have been turning up in Iraq.

US military intelligence sources said the weapons have been traced to Iran's Revolutionary Guard or Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon.

The Iranian angle has come to fore at a time both of heightened sectarian tension in Iraq, pitting Shia against Sunnis, and a sharpening diplomatic confrontation with Tehran over its nuclear program.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who also joined the hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, singled out Iran as the single biggest challenge to the United States in the Middle East.

She said it was "the central banker of terrorism" in the region, and said the threat it poses would be exponentially greater if it acquires nuclear weapons.

Although she emphasized diplomatic efforts to isolate Tehran, Byrd said there were rumors the US military is making preparations for military action against Iran.

Byrd said in his view any attack on Iran would risk setting off a regional conflict at a time when the United States already has its hands full in Iraq.

He pressed Rumsfeld to say whether any of the funds being sought would go to plan such an attack.

"Senator Byrd, I know of no plans to attack Iran, if that's the big thrust of your question," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld added, however, that "it's a responsibility under the law for the Department of Defense to consider a variety of contingencies and be prepared to deal with them should the Congress and the president request it."

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