obama has made Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez so angry, that Chavez has asked for defense supplies from Russia (Missile systems with a range of 185 miles) and obama is now turning to North Korea and Iran for sanctioning and "support".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackob...

The State Department said it would meet one-to-one with Pyongyang negotiators in an effort to persuade the reclusive Stalinist state to return to multilateral talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons programme.

Washington has also accepted a vague Iranian offer of talks on broad national security issues, even though Tehran refused to discuss its illicit atomic operations.


The US insisted it would raise Iranian’s nuclear activities in the meeting. "This may not have been a topic that they wanted to be brought up but I can assure that it's a topic that we'll bring up," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

The new approach to two regimes shunned by the previous Bush administration as rogue states from the so-called "axis of evil" marks a significant change in American diplomacy.

It is certain to come under fresh attack from prominent conservatives and national security hawks such as former vice-president Dick Cheney.

They are resolutely opposed to what they see as "rewarding" hostile nations for their nuclear belligerence by agreeing to talks.

The North Korea gambit comes just a week after Pyongyang declared that it was close to being able to enrich uranium, a development that would give the outlaw regime a potential second means of building nuclear weapons.

Until now, the US has insisted it would only speak directly to North Korea if it had already agreed to re-join the six-party talks. South Korea said yesterday that it would back a US-North Korea meeting if the goal was to kick-start the stalled six-party talks.

The strategy is a risky one, however. The North has long wanted to engage America in direct and wide-ranging talks over its nuclear ambitions while the US insists any one-to-one contact would be focussed on pushing Pyongyang back into multilateral negotiations over its atomic projects.

The regime has also long proven itself to be an unreliable partner, reneging on deals during the administrations of Mr Obama's two predecessors, George W Bush, a Republican, and Bill Clinton, the last Democrat in the White House.

North Korea agreed in September 2005 to abandon its nuclear programmes in an aid-for-disarmament agreement hammered out among the six parties.

But it has twice since tested an atomic device - most recently in May - and also gone back on promises to dismantle nuclear facilities.

The North declared the six-party talks "dead" late last year and Pyongyang will doubtless regard the offer of direct talks as proof that its long-standing policy of alternating threats with concessions remains effective.

But the announcement is a sign of Washington's concern that it North Korea is pressing ahead with its nuclear programme while refusing to return to the negotiating table. "We are prepared to enter into a bilateral discussion with North Korea," said State Department spokesman PJ Crowley.

"When it'll happen, where it'll happen, we'll have to wait and see.

We've made no decisions at this point, other than just to say we are prepared for a bilateral talk, if that will help advance the six-party process."

Mr Crowley also said the US would "test" Iran's intentions in accepting, along with Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, Tehran's offer to hold talks, even though it has said its nuclear programme is non-negotiable.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki responded yesterday by saying that "should conditions be ripe, there is a possibility of talks about the nuclear issue". That appeared to be a reversal of Iran's consistent refusal to discuss its nuclear programme, reiterated just three days earlier.

"We are seeking a meeting now based on the Iranian paper to see what Iran is prepared to do," Crowley said. "And then, as the president has said, if Iran responds to our interest in a meeting, we'll see when that can occur. We hope that will occur as soon as possible."

Mr Obama said in July that Iran should show a willingness to negotiate limits on its nuclear operations by September or face unspecified consequences - believed to be tougher United Nations sanctions. But Russia, which has a UN veto, said last week that it saw no case for fresh sanctions.

Glyn Davies, the US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Wednesday that Iran now has a "possible breakout capacity" if it decided to convert its stockpile of low-enriched uranium into bomb-grade material.

The New York Times reported that American intelligence agencies believe Iran has created enough nuclear fuel to make a rapid, if risky, sprint for a nuclear weapon. "But new intelligence reports delivered to the White House say that the country has deliberately stopped short of the critical last steps to make a bomb," the newspaper said.

And amid rising tensions with neighboring Colombia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced late Friday that it would soon take delivery of Russian-made missiles with a range of 185 miles. Mr Chavez, a long-time foe of Washington, has angrily denounced a recent decision by Colombia to allow the US access to several military bases on its territory.

WORLD WAR III.