Mr Sarkozy is understood to have discussed the idea with other EU leaders ahead of next week's European summit, Mr Blair's last major international event as prime minister.

His support for Mr Blair taking on a big European job is a remarkable sign of Anglo-French rapprochement since Mr Sarkozy replaced Jacques Chirac as president last month.

German diplomats say Mr Sarkozy put his plan to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, while EU officials say the French president has also touted his idea around other capitals, including Madrid. But the British prime minister remains unpopular with governments in countries such as Italy and Spain, which opposed the Iraq war. Mr Blair's failure to take Britain into the euro will also count against him.

Mr Blair's aides admit that Mr Sarkozy and other EU leaders have suggested the idea, but Downing Street insisted that Mr Blair was standing down from frontline politics on June 27. He has denied interest in the job.

The highly controversial development - which environmentalists say bears out their charge that the technology is creating "Frankenstein Foods" - is also likely to open the door to a new generation of GM crops.

The rice, which has been called "the Holy Grail" by GM enthusiasts, has been modified to grow two proteins found in human breast milk. It is produced by the California-based Ventria Biosciences, which says that it wants to use them in baby milk and rehydration drinks to fight the severe diarrhoea that kills some two million small children in the Third World every year. Critics dismiss this as window-dressing, citing a US government disclosure that the proteins will be used in "yoghurts" and "granola bars".

Apart from its use of human genes, the rice heralds a new type of crop modified to grow drugs, a process dubbed "pharming". This could lead to people who should not be exposed to the drugs unwittingly eating them in their food. The leading technical journal Nature Biotechnology compared growing such pharmaceuticals in crops to "packaging pills in candy wrappers.".

Clare Oxborrow of Friends of the Earth said: "This product is both risky and completely unnecessary. The solutions to diarrhoea are already out there and we do not need a genetically modified product, especially one that may risk public health."

Mr Blair had pledged to hold a referendum on the planned EU constitution in 2004 before the document was rejected by voters in France and Holland.

Yesterday No 10 insisted that the agreement expected to be sealed next week would lead only to an "amending treaty" that did not need to be approved at the polls. Timothy Kirkhope, the leader of Britain's Conservative MEPs, said: "In the event of a transfer of more powers to the EU the British people should have the right to a referendum. "No one under the age of 50 has ever voted on the issues of Europe. We need a referendum, not only on the Europe we want to see, but on the Europe we don't want to see."

IT WAS CLAIMED LAST NIGHT THAT THE FRENCH PRESIDENT NICOLAS SARKOZY WAS ACTIVELY TOUTING MR BLAIR FOR THE JOB OF THE FIRST FULL-TIME EU PRESIDENT. The Financial Times claimed that M. Sarkozy had discussed the idea with other European leaders. But Downing Street insisted that Mr Blair had no interest in the job. A spokeswoman said: "The Prime Minister has made it clear that he is not going to return to front-line politics."

About 900 Chinese missiles are in place opposite Taiwan, while China is also rolling out far more sophisticated long-range nuclear missiles, combat planes, warships and submarines, the Department of Defense official said.

Richard Lawless, the Pentagon's deputy undersecretary for Asia-Pacific affairs, said the US government urgently wanted to launch a strategic dialogue to discuss China's military intentions, especially over nuclear arms. "I think if we had a true dialogue of depth... we might be able to constrain and put some of those issues of (Chinese) intent to bed," he told a hearing of the House of Representatives armed services committee.

"Not being able to, we must plan and prepare for the worst," he said. "It is an area of intense concern and we're giving it due attention from the highest levels of the Department of Defense and the inter-agency discussion."
China's successful test of an anti-satellite weapon in January could "disrupt, delay and frustrate our ability to operate" in space, he also said.And its growing sophistication in "cyber-warfare" has given China the capacity "to attack and degrade our computer systems," he cautioned.

Lawless was briefing US lawmakers on an annual Pentagon report issued last month that questioned China's lack of transparency in its defense budgeting and suggested that it could be "planning for pre-emptive military options in advance of regional crises."

Although Beijing announced an official defense budget figure of 45 billion dollars for 2007, the US Defense Intelligence Agency estimates China's total military-related spending for this year could be up to 125 billion dollars.The lack of transparency in China's military activities "will naturally and understandably prompt international responses that hedge against the unknown," the report said.

The expensive upgrading of Chinese offensive systems "is tilting the military balance in the mainland's favor" against Taiwan, but also risks upsetting the regional balance of power in Asia and beyond, Lawless said.

As summer begins, half of the country is unusually dry or officially in drought from lack of rain, USA Today reported.

It is the driest spring in the U.S. Southeast since record-keeping began in 1895 and California and Nevada recorded their driest June-to-May period since 1924, the National Climatic Data Center said.

In Southern California's Antelope Valley, the dry spring erased the annual bloom of California poppies and in South Florida, Lake Okeechobee, the second-largest body of fresh water in the country, last week fell to a record low level. So much of the lake bed is dry that vegetation covering 12,000 acres of the area caught fire last month.

Saltwater intrusion threatens to contaminate wells for Atlantic coastal towns as fresh groundwater levels drop and in Alabama more than half the corn and wheat crops are in poor condition.

This drought has been particularly harsh in the Southwest, the Southeast and northern Minnesota.

Go to http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html for details

DENVER -- Drought, a fixture in much of the West for nearly a decade, now covers more than one-third of the continental United States. And it's spreading.

As summer starts, half the nation is either abnormally dry or in outright drought from prolonged lack of rain that could lead to water shortages, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly index of conditions.
The index shows Michigan is nearly drought free, with only some counties in the western Upper Peninsula experiencing a moderate drought.

Welcome rainfall from the recent Tropical Storm Barry brought short-term relief to parts of the fire-scorched Southeast. But up to 50 inches of rain is needed to end the drought there, and this is the driest spring in the Southeast since record-keeping began in 1895, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

Meanwhile, California and Nevada just recorded their driest June-to-May period since 1924, and a lack of rain in the West could make this an especially risky summer for wildfires. Coast to coast, the drought's effects are as varied as the landscapes:

- In central California, ranchers are selling cattle or trucking them out of state as grazing grass dries up. In Southern California's Antelope Valley, rainfall at just 15% of normal erased the spring bloom of California poppies.

- In South Florida, Lake Okeechobee fell to a record low of 8.94 feet last week. So much lake bed is dry that 12,000 acres of it caught fire last month.

- In Alabama, shallow ponds on commercial catfish farms are dwindling, and more than half the corn and wheat crops are in poor condition.

Dry episodes have become so persistent in the West that some scientists and water managers say drought is the "new normal" there. On the Colorado River, the water supply for 30 million people in seven states and Mexico, the Lake Powell and Lake Mead reservoirs are only half full and unlikely to recover for years. In Los Angeles County, on track for a record dry year, officials are threatening to cancel Fourth of July fireworks if conditions worsen.

In Minnesota, which is in its worst drought since 1976, the situation is improving slowly, although a wildfire last month burned dozens of houses and 115 square miles in the northeastern part of the state.

The Southeast, unaccustomed to prolonged dry spells, may be suffering the most. In eight states from Mississippi to the Carolinas and down through Florida, lakes are shrinking, crops are withering, well levels are falling.

"The only good news about drought, says Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, a think tank that stresses efficient water use, "is that it forces us to pay attention to water management."

Lt Gen Robert Elder, commander of the 8th Air Force, said that all of America's foes, including Iran, were looking at ways of hacking into US networks to glean trade and defence secrets. But efforts by China set it apart. "They're the only nation that has been quite that blatant about saying 'we're looking to do that'," said Gen Elder in Washington.

Gen Elder is to head a new cyber command centre being set up at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, already home to about 25,000 military personnel involved in everything from electronic warfare to network defence.

The command's focus is to control the "cyber domain", which the Pentagon now sees as critical to everything from communications to surveillance to infrastructure security, and just as important as "kinetic war". His remarks follow last month's annual report by the Pentagon on China's military power which said China regarded computer network operations as critical to achieving "electromagnetic dominance" early in a conflict.

China's People's Liberation Army had established units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks, the Pentagon said.China also was investing in electronic countermeasures and defences against electronic attack, including infrared decoys and false-target generators.

The US military now defines cyberspace as much broader than merely defending or attacking computer networks.Michael Wynne, the air force secretary, recently described the dangers as including remotely detonated roadside bombs in Iraq as well as interference with global positioning satellites and financial transactions over the internet.He said America's nerve centre "resides in cyberspace. Our military command and control, and precision strike capability all rely on ensured access to the electronic spectrum."

Caitlin Harrington, an aviation specialist at Jane's Defence Weekly, said: "The US military is taking this very seriously. It is similar to the once-emerging question of dominance of outer space."Gen Elder said a cyber war would probably involve precision targeting of enemy military networks, command centres or air defence systems.

The clearest example so far of cyber conflict came earlier this year when Estonia claimed that state-sponsored Russian hackers had attacked official websites in retaliation for the removal of a Soviet-era monument in its capital, Tallinn.Government email and private online banking had to be shut down temporarily, while telecommunications companies and news organisations were also affected. Nato allies and European specialists found that some of the attacks originated from IP (internet protocol) addresses that appeared to belong to the administration of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The Chinese foreign ministry rejected the Pentagon's report as "brutal interference" in internal affairs and insisted that Beijing's military preparations were purely defensive.

A leaked letter by current EU president Angela Merkel revealed that a deal is being drafted to revive almost all the controversial elements of the flopped European Constitution.

The disclosure sparked demands for a UK referendum on the new treaty - and angry claims that EU leaders were trying to smuggle in a massive new extension of Brussels power "by the back".

Writing to fellow leaders as part of the pre-summit exchange of views, she said it had been agreed to drop the term " constitution" to appease those who thought the EU was taking on the trappings of a state. But that was seen as "a major concession" - and most countries wanted "as much of the substance of the Constitutional Treaty as possible" to be saved. The implication was that the constitution would be revived in all but name, but this time without voters getting a choice.

Tory Europe spokesman Mark Francois said: "This is all being done in secret behind the back of the British people and the Parliament. If any further powers are given away, there must, absolutely must, be a referendum".

German officials were yesterday boasting that the new deal would give the European Union a "single legal personality".

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas fighters overran two of the rival Fatah movement's most important security command centers in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen into the street and shot them to death execution-style. Meanwhile, an Israeli tank shell struck a group of siblings near the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Thursday, Hamas security officials said. Hospital workers said five children, all under 16, were killed.

They identified the children as members of the Abu Matrok family. Hamas security officials said they were from the Bedouin community of Showka, east of Rafah. The army said it would look into the report. Hamas also seized control of Rafah in the south, Gaza's third-largest city, according to witnesses and security officials. It was the second main Gaza city to fall to the militants, who captured nearby Khan Younis on Wednesday.

Hamas captured the Preventive Security headquarters and the intelligence services building n Gaza City, major advances in the Islamic group's attempts to take over Gaza. After the rout at the Preventive Security headquarters, some of the Hamas fighters kneeled outside, touching their foreheads to the ground in prayer. Others led Fatah gunmen out of the building, some shirtless or in their underwear, holding their arms in the air. Several of the Fatah men flinched as the crack of gunfire split the air.

A witness, who identified himself only as Amjad, said men were killed as their wives and children watched.
"They are executing them one by one," Amjad said in a telephone interview, declining to give his full name for fear of reprisals. "They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting."

It is a bitter blow to the first woman chancellor of Germany at the end of a year in which Berlin has been the president of the EU. Until recently she harboured high hopes of persuading sceptical members to sign up to a treaty. But yesterday she told the German parliament: "A deal is still not in sight."

All she could offer was the phrase usually applied to the Middle East; a roadmap to a deal in a distant future.

"We want to agree upon a roadmap next week," Mrs Merkel told the German parliament. "If this doesn't succeed, it will not yet be the downfall of Europe, but it will have ... extremely serious consequences."

Mrs Merkel spoke before a round of weekend consultations in Germany with remaining sceptics, including the leaders of the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic, and as the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, in Warsaw, urged Poland to drop objections.

Poland is a major stumbling block. It is threatening to veto a deal by refusing to accept changes to the voting system envisaged under the draft treaty.
Poland, with about 38 million citizens, maintains the new rules favour the bigger countries. Warsaw joined the EU under the Nice agreement, which gave it almost as many votes as Germany with its 82 million residents - and it does not want to relinquish that power.

Mr Sarkozy flew to Poland on Thursday to try to persuade Warsaw to drop its veto threat. "Poland cannot block the European Union," Mr Sarkozy was quoted as saying in the leading daily newspaper in Poland Gazeta Wyborcza. "If every one of us shows total intransigence ... the question arises: what are we doing together?"

Although he is on the way out, Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, gave a strong hint on Wednesday he will resist efforts to resurrect elements of the failed constitution.

Kupelian, author of the bestselling book "The Marketing of Evil," wrote the cover story for the June 2006 edition of Whistleblower magazine, a piece that has since appeared on WND, titled "The war on fathers." Hosted today by Jeff Chamblee and Ed Vitagliano, the program, "Today's Issues," airs weekdays and is broadcast on over 200 radio stations. Kupelian's 40-minute interview is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. Eastern (8:15 a.m. Pacific).

In "The war on fathers," Kupelian explains why:

- Television today portrays husbands as bumbling losers or contemptible, self-absorbed egomaniacs.

- America's judicial system is wildly biased in favor of the mother in child custody disputes.

- In public school classrooms nationwide, in every category and every demographic group, boys are falling behind.

- Between six and nine million American children, mostly males, are taking Ritalin, the most popular treatment for "attention-deficit" and "overactivity" problems at school. But Ritalin is the trade name for Methylphenidate, which the Drug Enforcement Administration classifies as a "Schedule II" substance. "The controlled substances in this schedule," the DEA cautions, "have a high abuse potential with severe psychological or physical dependence liability, but have accepted medical use in the U.S."

The family's investment vehicle, Delta Two, annouced it had bought 123 million Sainsbury's shares at 595 pence per share, making £732m in all. The move takes the family stake to 435 million shares. Ainsbury's was recently at the heart of a takeover battle, fighting off a £10.1bn ($19.9bn) offer from a private equity consortium in April.

The consortium led by CVC Partners dropped their 600 pence-a-share proposal after the founding Sainsbury family, which owns 18% of the firm, had opposed its plans. In early trading, Sainsbury's shares were up 4.3% to 589.5 pence. In the UK, Sainsbury's has about 770 stores and employs about 155,000 people.

They are "defining their lifestyle" by this behaviour, encouraged by celebrity culture, the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV says. The increase in sexually-transmitted infections and high teenage pregnancy rates are "disturbing", it says. The Department of Health said sexual health was among its "top priorities".

The report said recent government campaigns had failed to recognise the link between drink, drugs and sexual health. The IAG also points out that the UK has the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and sexual infections in Europe. Anne Weyman, one of the vice chairs of the independent advisory group and chief executive of the fpa, said: "We need to look at it from young people's point of view.

"They see around them this culture of celebrities, in the newspapers, around sex and drugs, alcohol, all being brought together, and they're not being given alongside that the information and the education they need to handle issues like drugs and alcohol and sex as they're growing up."

Warnings have been issued for Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire. About 100 people have been trapped by rising flood water at a tool factory in Sutton Coldfield.

Train services have been badly disrupted by heavy rainfall, with services in Yorkshire and the Midlands particularly affected. Birmingham to Euston rail services are subject to delays, while roads across Sheffield have also been affected by rain.

The workers, trapped at the Sutton Coldfield factory because the River Tame burst its banks, are not at risk and are waiting for the water levels to recede. The Met Office has warned of heavy rain in much of England, with persistent downpours continuing.

It was drastic action, but it cannot do much to touch the Hamas military wing in Gaza. It is not clear how much influence even the elected Hamas politicians there have over events. The fighting has left masked Hamas gunmen in control of most of the centres of power in Gaza. Fatah's vaunted Preventive Security Force has been defeated, and its headquarters seized.

A state of emergency is supposed to bring violence under control. The risk is that this one will make it worse.
Some Palestinians fear that the end of the unity government could cause the collapse of the Palestinian Authority and the other institutions they had hoped would become part of the apparatus of an independent state.

The institutions, and the hopes behind them, have already taken a severe battering from Israel's military actions over the last seven years and, more recently, by the punishing financial sanctions imposed by Israel and other countries after Hamas won a free election at the beginning of last year. The events of this week feel like a breaking point.

One Palestinian analyst contacted by the BBC said he feared the damage being done to Palestinian society by the current meltdown and the years of pressure that created it would be on a par with the destruction of Palestinian social structures in 1948, when Israel was created. It is an event Arabs still refer to as "the catastrophe".

What has happened also shows the failure of the decision of the world's big powers to isolate Hamas. The financial sanctions they imposed, which caused severe hardship and helped fuel the violence in Gaza by making people even more desperate, were designed to either force Hamas to recognise Israel or to push it out of power. The policy has achieved neither objective.

The Saudis, who have given Mr Abbas vital backing, will not want to see the end of the unity government, since they worked hard to create it. It was supposed to be the centrepiece of a new activist Saudi foreign policy. The Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, will want to maintain a working relationship with Mr Abbas. Without it, Hamas will be even more isolated. So Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, will try to force Hamas and Fatah to negotiate.

If they cannot, and their future is to spill each other's blood over rival statelets - Gaza and the West Bank - under the eye of the occupying power, Israel, then they have no chance of a wider Middle East peace deal. The military leaders of Hamas do not believe one is possible anyway. And that would mean that the dream so many Palestinians have of an independent state will die for another generation.