US lacks plan to curb Irans n-drive: Gates

Officials familiar with the memos contents would describe only portions dealing with strategy and policy,and not sections that apparently dealt with secret operations against Iran,or how to deal with Persian Gulf allies.

One senior official,who spoke on the condition of anonymity,described the document as a wake-up call. But White House officials dispute that view,insisting that for 15 months they had been conducting detailed planning for many possible outcomes regarding Irans nuclear program.

In an interview on Friday,General Jones said,On Iran,we are doing what we said we were going to do. The fact that we dont announce publicly our entire strategy for the world to see doesnt mean we dont have a strategy that anticipates the full range of contingencies we do.

But in his memo,Gates wrote of a variety of concerns,including the absence of an effective strategy should Iran choose the course that many government and outside analysts consider likely: Iran could assemble all the major parts it needs for a nuclear weapon fuel,designs and detonators but stop just short of assembling a fully operational weapon. In that case,Iran could remain a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty while becoming what strategists call a virtual nuclear weapons state.

According to several officials,the memorandum also calls for new thinking about how the US might contain Irans power if it decided to produce a weapon,and how to deal with the possibility that fuel or weapons could be obtained by one of the terrorist groups Iran has supported,which officials said they considered to be a less-likely possibility.

Gates wrote the memo after Iran had let pass a 2009 deadline set by Obama to respond to his offers of diplomatic engagement.