WASHINGTON, December 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. will launch an initiative that will enhance "democracy" in the Arab world and enable its countries to cope with modern world, as U.S. warned Iraq and other potential foes Tuesday, December 10, that it is prepared to unleash "overwhelming force", possibly nuclear arms, to retaliate for any attack with weapons of mass destruction.

Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday, December 12, will launch a U.S. initiative to support economic, political and cultural programs in the Middle East, the State Department announced Tuesday, December 10.

Powell will launch Thursday, December 12, the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative in remarks to the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

The initiative supposedly "will provide funding and a framework for the United States to work together with governments and people in the Arab world to expand economic, educational and political opportunity," the department said in a statement.

It "will also serve as a forum for the United States and governments and people in the Middle East to strengthen cultural and economic ties," the statement said.

The initiative, which lacks any mention to the U.S. administration failure to enhance peace in the middle East, is supposed to restructure and reallocate U.S. economic aid to Arab countries, such as Egypt, Jordan, Morrocco and Yemen, said the Lebanese daily As-Safir.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage will coordinate the new initiative, to be managed by the State Department's Bureau of Near East Affairs under the supervision of Elizabeth Cheney, daughter of U.S. vice president Dick Cheney.

Meanwhile, the United States warned Iraq and other potential foes Tuesday that it is prepared to unleash "overwhelming force" - possibly nuclear arms - to retaliate for any attack with weapons of mass destruction.

The admonition was included in a six-page White House policy blueprint entitled "National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction" that was distributed to reporters a day before it is set to be formally unveiled.

"The United States will continue to make clear that it reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force - including through resort to all of our options - to the use of [weapons of mass destruction] against the United States, our forces abroad, and friends and allies," according to the document.

The warning was reminiscent of then-president George Bush's warning, in a letter on the eve of the 1991 Gulf War, that Baghdad would face the "severest consequences" if it attacked U.S. forces with chemical or biological arms.

The missive was widely read as threatening Iraq with atomic retaliation.

Meanwhile, the United States stepped up pressure Tuesday to extend the list of goods banned in Iraq, insisting that between 50 and 75 items, including some antibiotics, be added by the end of next week.

The administration of President George W. Bush sent one of its most hawkish officials - Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton - to confer with the four other permanent Security Council members.

The meeting was the first since the council voted December 4 to renew the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq for a full 180 days after striking a compromise on its vetting procedures.

In exchange for the extension of the program, previously blocked by the United States, Russia agreed to revise the list of items deemed to have a military potential within 30 days.

Tuesday's meeting, with officials from Britain, China, France and Russia, was to be followed Wednesday by a session of the Security Council's Iraqi sanctions committee, which scrutinizes Iraq's imports under the oil-for-food program.

At the meetings, Bolton proposed several dozen changes to the Goods Review List (GRL), which the council adopted in May to speed up its oversight of Iraq's imports by focusing only on so-called "dual-use" goods.

Diplomats told AFP that the United States wanted to rush through the changes before January 1, when five of the non-permanent members will leave the council, among them Norway, the current chairman of the sanctions committee.

Norway has generally followed the U.S. line in the committee.

The diplomats said Germany - a newcomer to the council - had been expected to take over from Norway, but the United States had begun a discreet campaign to hand the chairmanship to Chile, which was likely to be compliant.

Bolton's proposed changes - made available in written form to AFP - fell into five categories: conventional weapons, missiles, chemical weapons, biological weapons and multidiscipline.

Under biological weapons, the United States wants to ban Iraqi imports of antibiotics which under some conditions can help protect against the effects of weapons-grade gases (ciproflaxacin, doxycycline, gentomycin and streptomycin) or others, such as anthrax.