Polish police said Wednesday they had struck a blow against a gang trafficking guns and munitions to the Italian mafia after a large arms haul.

Polish and Italian officers had carried out a joint operation Sunday on a house near Milan in northern Italy which had been under surveillance, Poland`s national police force said in a statement.

Polish police said Wednesday they had struck a blow against a gang trafficking guns and munitions to the Italian mafia after a large arms haul.

Polish and Italian officers had carried out a joint operation Sunday on a house near Milan in northern Italy which had been under surveillance, Poland`s national police force said in a statement.

A top Chinese military official asserted his country`s right to build an aircraft carrier in a British newspaper interview Monday, without commenting directly on whether it had decided to do so.

KABUL, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - The United States will speed up the supply of 50,000 assault rifles to the Afghan army, boosting its ability to take on the Taliban, Afghanistan's defence minister said Saturday,

Abdul Rahim Wardak told reporters that he convinced US officials during a recent visit to accelerate supplies after delays caused by demand for guns in Iraq.

The new weapons will phase out old Russian and Chinese-made arms.

VIENNA, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - The refusal by most EU countries to back Egypt's call for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East at a UN conference last month appears to be causing friction between Cairo and Europe.

Egypt has asking the countries to explain their opposition, diplomatic sources in Vienna, where the conference was held, told AFP.

In a letter, Cairo expressed 'surprise and regret' at the decision by 25 EU countries not to endorse its call for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East at the UN nuclear watchdog's annual conference in September, diplomats said.

BAGHDAD, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - The US military announced on Saturday it had found and destroyed a massive cache of more than 18 tonnes of explosives in a province north of Baghdad.

The haul of 41,000 pounds (18.6 tonnes) of homemade explosives was discovered on Thursday along with 35 projectiles west of the town of Tarmiya in Salaheddin province, a statement said.

'A discovery of this magnitude deals a crippling blow to the enemy,' said Colonel Bryan Owens, an officer involved in the operation.

The explosives were initially spotted by a coalition helicopter.

WASHINGTON, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - US experts are to begin disabling North Korea's nuclear weapons arsenal in about three weeks, the State Department said Thursday following talks in Pyongyang.

The timeframe was given by Sung Kim, the head of the US State Department's Korea desk, who completed talks with North Korean officials on the nuclear disablement mission, said Tom Casey, a department spokesman.

Kim and his 20-member interagency team that visited North Korea were on their way home after a one week pre-disablement mission, Casey said.

BEIJING, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - A group of US experts left North Korea Thursday after a week of negotiations on dismantling the isolated Stalinist nation's atomic facilities, including the key Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

Sung Kim, the head of the US State Department's Korea desk, arrived in Beijing following discussions linked to the six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes.

SEOUL, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon on Thursday cautioned that a peace agreement to formally end the war with the North would not come quickly.

'We cannot say peace will come right after tomorrow,' Song said in a report to parliament, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

'At the end of a long process comes a peace mechanism and a peace accord, based on which a declaration of ending the war would follow.'

HARARE, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - A South African businessman appeared in a Zimbabwean court to face charges of attempting to smuggle three rifles and 108 rounds of ammunition, a state-run daily reported Thursday.

McCallum Douglas Wayne, a 40-year-old tour operator, was arrested at Harare International Airport after he was found with the firearms and ammunition without a certificate, the Herald reported.

TOKYO, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Japanese police on Wednesday raided a consulting firm on suspicion it embezzled funds meant to dispose chemical weapons abandoned by Japanese soldiers in China after World War II.

Television footage showed some 20 prosecutors entering an office of Tokyo-based Pacific Consultants International, which often receives government contracts to study the feasibility of overseas aid projects.

SEOUL, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - South and North Korea will hold talks next week on ways to deliver energy aid to the communist country as compensation for its promised nuclear shutdown, officials said Wednesday.

The two-day meeting will start on Monday at the North's Mount Kumgang resort, the South's foreign ministry said.

'The meeting is aimed at facilitating progress at the next round of the six-nation working group meetings on providing energy to North Korea,' an official at the ministry's spokesman's office told AFP.

WASHINGTON, Oct 16, 2007 (AFP) - A Russian military resurgence bolstered by booming oil wealth is raising some concern here about where Moscow is headed, US defense officials and outside experts say.

Threats by Russia to withdraw from key arms control treaties, reaffirmed by President Vladimir Putin last week in Moscow with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, have punctuated the slide in relations.

EL-ARISH, Egypt, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Egyptian police on Monday discovered a tunnel used for smuggling as well as a large quantity of munitions near the border with the Gaza Strip, a security source told AFP.

During a routine border patrol, Egyptian police spotted 49 plastic bags filled with ammunition, as well as five kilogrammes (11 pounds) of heroin south of the border town of Rafah, the source said.

The plastic bags then led them to the discovery of a tunnel close by.

'It is clear the tunnel has been used several times for smuggling,' the source said.

SEOUL, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - North Korea is beefing up security measures around its first nuclear test site in an apparent bid to stop unauthorised sampling of soil in the area, a report said Monday.

Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted an unnamed government source as saying the North had started building a fence and reinforcing troops around the site of the 2006 underground nuclear test at Punggyeri in the northeastern county of Kilju.

SEOUL, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - North Korea's official media lashed out at 'brazen-faced' US President George W. Bush on Friday, warning his recent strong criticism of the communist country could cloud nuclear disarmament efforts.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Bush's description of the Pyongyang government as 'brutal' before the United Nations General Assembly last month had damaged North Korea's dignity and international standing.

TOKYO, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - US experts opened talks Friday in North Korea on disabling the communist state's atomic facilities, the latest step in a six-nation deal on ending its nuclear drive, a report said.

The eight-person team is visiting Pyongyang after North Korea agreed last week to disable key facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear complex and declare all other nuclear programmes by the end of the year.

Japan's Kyodo News said in a dispatch from Pyongyang that the two sides had opened talks at a hotel in the North Korean capital.

WASHINGTON, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - The United States announced initiatives Thursday to combat illegal trafficking in weapons and sensitive technologies that could fall into the hands of Iran, China or terrorist groups.

The US government's effort targets 'the illegal export of sensitive American technology -- technology that includes a wide range of controlled US military items, dual-use technology, and other products -- some of which can be used in the development of weapons of mass destruction,' said Kenneth Wainstein, assistant US attorney general for national security.

WASHINGTON, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - The United States announced Thursday a series of initiatives to combat illegal trafficking in weapons and sensitive technologies that could fall into the hands of rogue states such as Iran.

MOSCOW, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Moscow on Thursday for talks on a proposed US anti-missile defence shield in eastern Europe opposed by Moscow.

Gates will be joined by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday to discuss the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

SEOUL, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has underlined his 'strong' will to scrap his nuclear programme, South Korea's president said Thursday.

Roh Moo-Hyun said the reclusive Kim was pleased with progress in six-party talks and at a perceived turn-around in Washington's attitude, according to Yonhap news agency.

'We have no intention to possess nuclear weapons. Our will is strong,' Roh quoted Kim as saying at last week's three-day summit.

BEIJING, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - A team of US experts arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday to begin overseeing the disablement of North Korea's key nuclear facilities, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

The eight experts, led by the head of the State Department's Korea desk, Sung Kim, were due to launch the process of disabling the North's reactor at Yongbyon, which produces bomb-grade plutonium, US officials said earlier.

VIENNA, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) - Austrian gunmaker Glock rejected reports Wednesday which said that the black market in Iraq was flooded with the company's semi-automatic pistols.

It was 'incorrect' that 80,000 pistols, many of them made by Glock, had disappeared in Iraq since 2004, the gunmaker's lawyers, Quendler, Klaus & Partner, told the Austrian news agency APA.

PARIS, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) - France published details Wednesday of a defence accord struck with Libya following the release of the Bulgarian medics covering the sale of military hardware and the training of Libyan special forces.

Struck on July 25, the day after the release of the six medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus, the accord was closely followed by the announcement of military contracts with European defence firm EADS.

BEIJING, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) - A team of US experts arrived in Beijing on Wednesday en route to North Korea, where they will begin disabling the hardline communist state's nuclear facilities.

The eight experts, led by the head of the State Department's Korea desk, Sung Kim, are due to launch the process of disabling the North's reactor at Yongbyon, which produces bomb-grade plutonium, US officials said.

Kim refused to comment upon arrival but officials said he would be going on to North Korea on Thursday.

WASHINGTON, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) - The United States and Russia tangle this week in Moscow over an assortment of arms control agreements that restrained the two superpowers during the Cold War, but are now unraveling amid recriminations over US missile defense plans.

In an unusual joint mission to Moscow, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates will meet their Russian counterparts Friday and Saturday on a range of strategic issues, State Department officials said.

WASHINGTON, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - A team of US experts left Tuesday for North Korea to disable the hardline communist state's nuclear weapons arsenal in a crucial phase of a six-nation disarmament pact.

The eight experts would launch the process of 'actual disablement' at the key Yongbyon nuclear complex, the source of bomb-grade plutonium for North Korea, which conducted its first atomic weapons test exactly a year ago, officials said.

The experts are expected to reach Pyongyang on Thursday after a stopover in Beijing.

TOKYO, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Japan extended sanctions Tuesday against North Korea by another six months to mid-April to keep up the pressure on Pyongyang over its abductions of Japanese nationals, government officials said.

The decision was made at a cabinet meeting, an official said, on the first anniversary of the North's first ever atomic weapons test.

'Marking this occasion, we want to renew our demand that North Korea take concrete action towards the resolution of the relevant issues,' Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference.

TOKYO, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Japan extended sanctions Tuesday against North Korea by another six months to mid-April to keep up the pressure on Pyongyang over its abductions of Japanese nationals, government officials said.

The decision was made at a cabinet meeting, an official said, on the first anniversary of the North's first ever atomic weapons test.

'Marking this occasion, we want to renew our demand that North Korea take concrete action towards the resolution of the relevant issues,' Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference.

SEOUL, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - A year after stunning the world with its first ever nuclear test, an unrepentant North Korea on Tuesday hailed the event as a 'miracle' for the Korean people.

Leader Kim Jong-Il brought 'the sky of lasting peace, prosperity and hope' to his people, the ruling communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said without directly mentioning the test.

'We cannot really forget...a shout of joy in October Juche 95 (2006), which will be recorded permanently in 5,000 years of our history,' the paper said in an editorial.

HARARE, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - A US citizen who tried to board a plane in Zimbabwe carrying two pistols and 300 rounds of ammunition was to appear in court the African country Tuesday, state media and the US embassy said.

The man, who was not named, was arrested last Friday at the airport at Victoria Falls, the country's top tourist resort, with the weapons in his possession, the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Corporation reported.

A US embassy spokesman, Mark Weinberg, confirmed the arrest and said the man had been in touch with consular officials.

TOKYO, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Japan extended sanctions Tuesday against North Korea by another six months to mid-April to keep up the pressure on Pyongyang over its abductions of Japanese nationals, government officials said.

The decision was made at a cabinet meeting, an official said, on the first anniversary of the North's first ever atomic weapons test.

The sanctions will cover the period from October 14 to April 13, according to a foreign ministry official in charge of Northeast Asian affairs.

SEOUL, Oct 8, 2007 (AFP) - North Korea will scrap its nuclear programmes 'completely and quickly,' South Korea predicted Monday, on the eve of the first anniversary of the communist state's atomic weapons test which shocked the world.

But analysts cautioned that despite dramatic progress over the past year, the toughest negotiations -- to persuade the North to give up its plutonium stockpiles and actual atomic weapons -- still lie ahead.

SEOUL, Oct 7, 2007 (AFP) - North Korea will likely begin disabling its nuclear facilities in mid-October under a disarmament-for-aid deal that should see the process completed by year's end, a news report said Sunday.

The disablement would take 45 days from the start until late November or early December, Seoul's Yonhap news agency said quoting unnamed officials.

The report came after top US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said Washington was preparing to send a team of experts to North Korea this week ahead to discuss initiating the process.

BAGHDAD, Oct 5, 2007 (AFP) - They've been searching for months, but the US military has still not got to the bottom of what happened to tens of thousands of small arms handed to Iraqi forces, fearing many are now in the hands of insurgents.

As an example, the Americans delivered 125,163 Austrian-made Glock semi-automatic pistols to Iraqi police between 2003 and late 2006, Pentagon figures shows.

WASHINGTON, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - The Pentagon notified Congress Thursday of possible sales of missiles, armored vehicles and cargo aircraft upgrades worth nearly 1.4 billion dollars to four Middle East states.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier this year promoted a much larger package of arms sales to the region earlier this year as a means to counter Iran.