"The National Security Space Strategy represents a significant departure from past practice," said Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. "It is a pragmatic approach to maintain the advantages we derive from space while confronting the new challenges we face."

Ambassador Gregory L. Schulte, the deputy secretary of defense for space policy said that this is the first National Security Space Strategy co-signed by the secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence.

"Space has changed in fundamental ways, and that requires us to change our strategy," Mr. Schulte said.

Secretary Gates and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper "have signed a document that shows the new directions we need to go," he added.

The 10-year strategy concludes the congressionally mandated Space Posture Review by providing strategic objectives and approaches for national security space.

Officials from the Defense Department and the intelligence community submitted an interim report to Congress in March 2010 that delayed a review of national security space policy and objectives until after the release of the U.S. National Space Policy in June 2010.

Perhaps the strategy's most important message, Mr. Schulte said, "is that we have to think differently about how we operate in space."

For example, he said, "we have to think about how to encourage other countries to act responsibly in space and how the United States can provide leadership in that regard.

"Secondly," he added, "we have to think about how we can better leverage the growing amount of foreign commercial capabilities that are now in space. And third, we need to think differently about how to deter others from attacking our space assets."

As in the past, he said, the Defense Department must protect space capabilities to protect the warfighter, whether it's communications, surveillance or global positioning.

"It's space that allows our Soldiers to see over the next hill," Mr. Schulte said. "It's space that allows us to communicate quickly. It's space that allows us to see whether hostile missiles are launched, so we need to preserve that capability.

"Our goal is to make the peaceful use of space available to all countries," he added, noting that the peaceful use of space includes support for critical defense capabilities.

"Space becomes critical to everything we do, and that's why we're worried that the environment is increasingly challenging," Mr. Schulte said. "You have more debris in space and you have countries that are developing counterspace capabilities that can be used against us. That's why this strategy emphasizes the need to protect our capabilities, protect our industrial base and protect the space domain itself."

U.S. Strategic Command officials at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., are working with other countries and commercial firms to increase situational awareness in space.

"STRATCOM was once in charge of delivering nuclear weapons," Mr. Schulte said. "STRATCOM is now also delivering warnings of potential collisions in space to any variety of countries because we have an interest in preventing more collisions and more debris."

The military also must begin to consider operating in coalitions in space, he said.

"In just about every other domain -- at sea, in the air, on the ground -- we operate with allies and partners," Mr. Schulte said. "There are good reasons to do it."

Potential partners include members of NATO, whose new 10-year strategic concept issued last year "acknowledged for the first time that access to space is something you can't take for granted," he said.

The Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., is a focal point for the operational use of worldwide U.S. space forces, Mr. Schulte said, and it allows the commander of STRATCOM's joint functional component command for space to integrate space power into global military operations.

"We would like to make that into a (combined center)," Mr. Schulte said, "where we bring in our closest allies and eventually others, so that like in other domains, we can conduct combined operations."

The 10-year National Security Space Strategy will require at least that long to implement, he said.

"You will see some early indications of it in the president's budget for 2012, and you will see more in his budget for 2013, but ultimately what we're trying to do is affect programs of the services, particularly the Air Force, over the longer term," Mr. Schulte said. "We're trying to affect how we train; we're trying to affect how we plan, and we're trying to affect the diplomacy we conduct with the Department of State. So I think you'll see (the strategy) roll out in many different ways. In fact, you're already seeing elements of it."

On Jan. 6, Secretary Gates announced that he would use some of the efficiency savings Air Force officials identified to invest in the U.S. launch capability to help in protecting the industrial base, Mr. Schulte said.

Defense Department officials are working with officials in Australia on the sharing of space situational awareness, and are talking to the commercial sector about how DOD can host payloads on their satellites, he said.

"And we're looking for a whole range of activities to implement the new strategy in a budget-constrained environment," he added.

Mr. Schulte said that to get DOD organized for space, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III created the Space Defense Council, to be chaired by Air Force Secretary Michael Donley.

"The secretary and the deputy have entrusted to Secretary Donley the role of moving forward with our strategy," he said, "and the Defense Space Council provides a forum to do that."

In his first television interview since leaving public life in December 2006 after a long and divisive tenure at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld also ripped into some of George W. Bush's closest advisers, saying Condoleezza Rice lacked experience and Colin Powell showed poor management skills.

The television appearance is part of Rumsfeld's effort to promote his new memoir, "Known Unkown," which is due to be released Tuesday and which recounts his career in government spanning Republican presidents from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush.

The ex-defense chief was reluctant to endorse his former boss's assessment that the decision to draw down US troops shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq was "the most important failure in the execution of the war."

"I don't have enough confidence to say that that's right. I think that it's possible," Rumsfeld told ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer.

"We had (an) enormous number of troops ready to go in. They had -- we had off-ramps, if they weren't needed.

"It's hard to know... You know, the path you didn't take is always smoother," he said.

Rumsfeld, who served as Bush's defense chief for six years after holding the the same job under president Gerald Ford in the 1970s, acknowledged that "in a war, many things cost lives."

But he had no regrets about his leadership for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- the latter now nearing its 10th anniversary.

"I think the world's a better place with Saddam Hussein gone and with the Taliban gone and the Al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan," Rumsfeld said, insisting the Bush administration made only an "incremental" move toward invading Iraq in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Rumsfeld said it was not him but rather Paul Wolfowitz, the then deputy secretary of defense who became known as a major architect of the Iraq war, who raised Iraq at a the presidential retreat at Camp David shortly after 9/11.

Just as in his book, Rumsfeld offered some frank judgements in the interview about longtime rivals and critics.

Asked whether he admired his ex-boss's father president George H.W. Bush -- under whom he did not serve -- Rumsfeld replied curtly: "No, I was kind of disappointed in him."

Rice, who served as Bush's national security adviser before later becoming secretary of state had "never served in a senior administration position," a lack of experience that hampered her ability to organize critical meetings, Rumsfeld said.

He said Powell -- Bush's first top diplomat -- "did not, in my view, do a good job of managing the people under him," calling leaks out of the State Department "unhelpful."

Rumsfeld said Powell, along with other top Bush advisers and officials, truly believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction when he made a presentation to the UN Security Council in February 2003 -- and never spoke up during meetings with the president to raise objections about the war.

"There's a lot of stuff (in) the press that says Colin Powell was against it. But I never saw even the slightest hint of that," he said.

The decision was taken by the prime minister's office at an extraordinary meeting on January 27, and was conveyed to those concerned the following day, an aide to Prime Minister Francois Fillon told AFP.

With regard to equipment used to maintain public order, "export permits for explosive materiel, mostly tear gas grenades, are the responsibility of customs. These were suspended on January 25," the aide said.

Egypt has been rocked by a popular uprising since January 25 seeking to topple Mubarak, in power for nearly 30 years.

The French government was recently challenged by the Socialist opposition as to why it had continued to allow exports of such products to Tunisia after the uprising which eventually forced long-time president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee.

Fillon acknowledged that France had authorised the exports to Tunisia in November last year and January, until just before the departure of Ben Ali, but said the exports had not taken place.

In December and January, there had been "no deliveries of war materiel" to the Tunisian authorities," Fillon said, insisting that they needed the rubber stamp of a committee answerable to the prime minister.

The permits had been granted by the defence, interior and foreign ministries, "but none of them resulted in exports," he said.

Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie caused a storm last month when she suggested France could train Tunisian police to maintain order better, amid reports that they had shot dead dozens of unarmed protesters.

Meanwhile at least 2,000 people rallied in Paris and elsewhere in France demanding Mubarak to quit immediately and protesting against foreign meddling in Egyptian politics.

Organisers of the Paris rally said that demonstration alone had attracted 4,000: police put the figure at 1,700.

Smaller demonstrations took place in Strasbourg in the east and Grenoble in the southeast.

"The investment China is putting into counterspace capabilities is a matter of concern to us," deputy secretary of defense for space policy Gregory Schulte told reporters as the defense and intelligence communities released their 10-year National Security Space Strategy (NSSS).

The NSSS marks a huge shift from past practice, outlining a 10-year path for the United States to take in space to ensure it becomes "more resilient" and can defend its assets in a dramatically more crowded, competitive and challenging environment, Schulte said.

A key reason for developing the new strategy was "concern about the number of counterspace capabilities that are being developed," said Schulte.

"China is at the forefront of the development of those capabilities," he said.

China in 2007 shot down one of its own weather satellites using a medium-range ground missile, sparking international concern not only about how China "weaponizing" space, but also about the debris from the satellite that is still floating around in space.

Beijing is also working on ways to jam satellite signals and is developing directed energy weapons, which emit energy towards a target without firing a projectile, Schulte said.

US concerns over China's space activities have led Defense Secretary Robert Gates to seek to include space in the stability dialogue with the Chinese, Schulte said.

"With the country running a $14 trillion national debt, my goal is to provide as much transparency as possible about what is happening with taxpayer money," said Sanders (I-Vt.). "The sad truth is that virtually all of the major defense contractors in this country for years have been engaged in systemic fraudulent behavior, while receiving hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money."

The preliminary report detailed how the Pentagon spent $270 billion from 2007 to 2009 on 91 contractors involved in civil fraud cases that resulted in judgments of more than $1 million. Another $682 million went to 30 contractors convicted of hard-core criminal fraud in the same three-year period. Billions more went to firms that had been suspended or debarred by the Pentagon for misusing taxpayer dollars.

A Sanders provision in a defense spending bill required the report and directed the Department of Defense to recommend ways to punish fraudulent contractors. The Pentagon brass saw no need for any changes. "The department believes that existing remedies with respect to contractor wrongdoing are sufficient," the Report to Congress on Contractor Fraud concluded.

"It is clear that DOD's current approach is not working and we need far more vigorous enforcement to protect taxpayers from massive fraud," Sanders said.

Under a separate Sanders provision in another law signed by President Obama, a government-wide federal contractor fraud database will be accessible to the public by April 15. Until now, access to the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System was limited to federal acquisition officials and certain members of Congress.

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"That's not a mission stopper in my mind," General David Rodriguez, deputy US commander in Afghanistan, told a Pentagon news conference.

US officials have long pressed Islamabad to crack down on the Haqqani network and other militants based in North Waziristan, saying the insurgents exploit the area as a sanctuary to stage attacks on coalition forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

But Rodriguez said the war effort would not be derailed even if Pakistan never fulfils promises to take action in North Waziristan, saying Islamabad has launched effective operations elsewhere along the northwest border.

"We need them to do more. We're going to encourage them to do more because that makes it easier on what we're doing. But I think it's still doable, without them decreasing what they've been doing, which is significant," he said.

His comments contrasted with more pessimistic assessments from US intelligence agencies and some lawmakers, who have warned that Pakistan's reluctance to combat the Haqqani network in North Waziristan could undermine the war effort.

Pakistan has maintained ties to some militant groups as a hedge against historic rival India and to ensure Islamabad's influence in Afghanistan, diplomats say.

Rodriguez said he expected violence in Afghanistan to increase as usual in the spring as the insurgency launches its annual "seasonal" offensive.

But he predicted the Taliban would change its approach, targeting Afghan officials for assassination while moving away from confrontations with the heavily-armed coalition force.

With President Barack Obama planning to start a withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in July, Rodriguez said it was too early to say how many forces might be pulled out.

Rodriguez leads the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command, serving under the overall commander in Afghanistan, US General David Petraeus.

As Mubarak announced a new cabinet that saw the demise of a widely feared interior minister, and the newly appointed vice president offered talks with the opposition, protesters pushed ahead with a singular goal of forcing the president from office.

They announced an indefinite general strike and called for a "march of a million" in the capital on Tuesday, the eighth day of an uprising that has claimed at least 125 lives in clashes between demonstrators and police.

Another million-strong march was planned in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, as national train services were cancelled in an apparent bid to stymie protests.

The new demonstrations will come as the hated police have returned to the street after a mysterious two-day absence that protesters said was a ploy to sow a sense of insecurity.

But while it remains unknown what posture police will adopt in the face of the strike and marches, the army stated clearly that it would not confront the demonstrators.

"To the great people of Egypt, your armed forces, acknowledging the legitimate rights of the people," stress that "they have not and will not use force against the Egyptian people," the military said in a statement.

Tens of thousands of protesters had carpeted Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square, the epicentre of demands for an end to the corruption, deprivation and police oppression indelibly associated with Mubarak's 30-year rule.

"We will stay in the square, until the coward leaves," the crowd chanted.

Eid Mohammed, an organiser of the protests, told AFP: "It was decided overnight that there will be a million-man march on Tuesday. We have also decided to begin an open-ended general strike."

Faced with the biggest protests of his presidency, an increasingly embattled Mubarak has appointed his first-ever vice president and a new prime minister in a desperate attempt to hold on to power.

A new cabinet unveiled on Monday did little to placate the protesters. However, the departure of interior minister Habib al-Adly, whose notorious security forces have been accused of systematic human rights violations, was welcomed.

"We will accept no change other than Mubarak's departure," said one protester who asked not to be named.

Another, Rifat Ressat, said: "We want a complete change of government, with a civilian authority."

Police were ordered back onto the nation's streets on Monday, after an absence during which the army was deployed in the face of the revolt, but few policemen were visible on Cairo's streets.

Their vanishing act remains unexplained officially, but it left the city prey to looters and jail-breakers, and residents formed self-defence groups to protect their patches.

As the anti-regime campaign continued apace, Vice President Omar Suleiman said Mubarak had tasked him "with opening immediate talks with the political forces to begin a dialogue around all the issues concerning constitutional and legislative reforms."

Meanwhile, Arab League chief Amr Mussa, a highly former Egyptian foreign minister often tipped as a possible successor to Mubarak, called for a peaceful transition.

"There has to be a peaceful way forward, a peaceful transition ... from an era to the other," Mussa told AFP. "It is incumbent upon politicians or people working in politics to help that process."

Protesters massed in downtown Cairo vowed that Mubarak's resignation would not be enough, while Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, called for them to press on until they bring down his creaking regime.

Amid chaos and lawlessness, several foreign governments said they would evacuate their nationals, and the United States authorised the departure of embassy families.

Washington, a key ally of Egypt, has urged Mubarak to do more to defuse the crisis, with President Barack Obama calling for "an orderly transition to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people."

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is investigating a terrorist cyber-attack on its headquarters last year while US officials have traced an attack on one of its exchanges to Russia, according to the British newspaper.

Officials suspect the attacks were designed to spread panic among markets and destabilise western financial institutions.

Cyber attacks on governments and companies increased more than 500 percent over the last two years and a raid on the European Emissions Trading Scheme ten days ago shut down the carbon market.

A leading UK cyber security expert told the newspaper: "Make no mistake, the UK?s critical infrastructure is under attack. The threat is advanced and persistent."

“The J-20 stories, frankly, that I've seen over the past couple weeks … have been a little over the top,” Morrell said during a Pentagon news conference. He noted that reports of “successful testing” ignore the unknowns of the Chinese aircraft.

“What we know is that a plane that looks different than any other they produced, that they claim to be their J-20, had a short test flight when we were in Beijing,” the press secretary said. “But we don't know, frankly, much about the capabilities of that plane.”

The test flight occurred during Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’ visit to China this month.

The J-20’s engine capabilities and degree of stealth capability are among the unknowns, Morrell said, adding that the U.S. current and developing air fleet is more than equal to any possible Chinese challenge.

“That's why we have pursued not just the F-22, which we have in more than enough numbers to deal with any scenario involving China, but also the F-35, to the tune of nearly 2,500 planes,” Morrell said.

Morrell said “given what little we know,” of the Chinese aircraft, “I would just urge everybody to … slow down a little bit on our characterizations of the J-20 at this point.”

China’s capabilities and North Korea’s recent provocations make the question of U.S. force presence in the region an important one, Morrell said.

“In light of the threat that we see emanating … from Pyongyang,” he said, “we have said that we will do what is necessary to protect ourselves here as well as our forward-deployed forces [and] our allies, who we have security commitments to.”

The United States has 28,500 troops on the Korean peninsula and more than 50,000 more in Japan, Morrell noted.

“And over the long-term lay-down of our forces in the Pacific, we are looking at ways to even bolster that, not necessarily in Korea and Japan, but along the Pacific Rim, particularly in Southeast Asia,” he said.

Australia and Singapore may offer U.S. access to certain military facilities in the region, he said, adding, “Guam, obviously, would be the best example of us changing our lay-down and our footprint in the region, enhancing [our presence] in Southeast Asia.”

Morrell said Gates’ recent comments on the North Korean threat shouldn’t be construed as applying immediately.

“I think what he said is they're becoming a direct threat to the United States,” the spokesman said. “By that, he doesn't mean at this very moment. But given their pursuit of both the nuclear weapons and their ballistic-missile capabilities, he sees them being a direct threat not within five years, but sooner than that.”

Morrell said that’s why defense officials are working with China, Japan and others to impress on North Korea that “they've got to cut out this provocative behavior, the destabilizing behavior, and they've got to seriously reevaluate their pursuit of nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles.”

China’s new J-20 stealth fighter roars along the runway and takes to the skies, the maiden test-flight of a plane designed to rival the United States’ radar-eluding aircraft.

Images of the flight, leaked on the Internet and subsequently confirmed as genuine by the Beijing government, have focused attention on China’s military modernization.

The European Union banned the sale of military technology to China following the crackdown on dissidents in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

But Alexander Neill of analyst group the Royal United Services Institute says China’s growing financial influence in Europe is starting to tell.

"EU member states certainly feel pressured by China given the economic contagion, which seems to be spreading through the EU at the moment,” Neill said. “Many national leaders, I am sure, will think twice about how they engage the Chinese on investment, which is essentially bailing them out of elements of their economic doldrums."

Beijing has just signed a series of multi-billion-dollar deals with European companies. China says it is also prepared to buy up to $7.9 billion of Spanish government debt at a time of heightened fears over the future of the euro currency.

Many EU leaders, including the bloc’s foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, have suggested it is time the arms export ban to China was revised.

Britain, while welcoming its own slice of Chinese investment, is at odds with EU countries that want to repeal the embargo."The U.K.’s position remains exactly as it has been over the last few years, which is now is not the right time to lift the ban," Neill stated.

Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Washington earlier this month and sought to calm fears over China’s investment in its military. He says China does not engage in arms races or pose a military threat to any country and will never seek hegemony or pursue an expansionist policy.

Despite military spending estimated at $78 billion in 2010, Alexander Neill says China’s armed forces still lag behind. "But there are areas of concern where China has managed to play catch-up with the United States,” he said. “Particularly in its high-tech and asymmetric capabilities."

China’s J-20 stealth fighter is an example of such high-tech advances.