DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 27 (AFP) - The United States must build a research capacity which dwarfs the secretive project behind the atomic bomb if it is to counter an inevitable bio-terror attack, US Senate majority leader Bill Frist warned Thursday.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Republican senator said an attack would come "at some time in the next 10 years," yet the world was badly under-prepared.
His remarks were shared in varying degrees by other security experts here, including former CIA chief John Deutch who called for mass vaccination against smallpox and anthrax.
"The greatest existential threat we have in the world today is biological," Frist said, reprising a theme he has taken up in the United States.
"It's a global threat. It's not just one country's problem."
Recalling deadly 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States and ricin-laced letters sent to his Senate offices a year ago, he said that "we are now in an environment now where the threat of terrorism is increasing, not decreasing."
Citing threats from Al-Qaeda, Iraqi insurgents and smaller groups, he said other potential weapons included smallpox, botulism and the plague virus.
"I think we need to do something that even dwarfs the Manhattan Project to stay ahead, to be prepared, in a flexible way, to (respond to) agents that can be altered, that can be changed," Frist added.
"It means continue the research, set the goals."
The Manhattan Project was the name given to the Allied effort in World War II to develop the first nuclear weapons after it became clear Nazi Germany was also investigating the possibility.
It involved more than 30 different research and production sites, although was concentrated at just three, including Los Alamos in New Mexico.
The research led directly to the atomic bombs dropped in August 1945 on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Gareth Evans, head of the International Crisis Group, which specialises in conflict prevention, said terrorism was "clearly" the business community's top concern.
His fear was a "big one" -- "a combination of a terror assault with nuclear or biological devices."
"We know that the market for terrorism has widened. We know terrorists are planning a big terror attack," agreed Ronald Noble, of the multi-national law enforcement network Interpol, although he criticised failings in the level of cooperation between states and intelligence agencies.
Deutch, a CIA chief under the Clinton administration, said the top priority should be directed against smallpox, and then anthrax.
Smallpox, which is highly contagious, has been eradicated after a worldwide vaccination programme, but small Cold War-era stocks are still held by Russia and the United States.
But Deutch said that "there are places in less hygienic parts of the world, old graves, dumps of one kind or another, where it is almost certain you could obtain small amounts of smallpox."
And while the United States was a prime target, "there are many reasons to believe other countries might become equally attractive targets," he added.
He said livestock and crops were also vulnerable as well as people.
Deutch said the United States was not properly prepared for the event of a bio-terror attack in terms of vaccine stocks, training and awareness.
Frist, for his part, said more investment was needed in research, vaccines, public health systems, diagnostic equipment and electronic health records.
A report two weeks ago by the US Century Foundation concluded that while US readiness had improved since 2001, more had to be done.
The day the report came out, the FBI announced that a Florida man had been arrested and charged with possession of a biological weapon after ricin traces were found in his apartment. He has no known link with terror groups.
01/27/2005 18:26 GMT - AFP