Commission members were particularly alarmed by the continuing economic meltdown in Russia, said the newspaper, which obtained an early copy of the panel's report, due out next week. The panel is headed by former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Deutch.

The report cites seven instances since 1992 in which weapons-grade fissile materials were stolen. Russia does not know how much material it has, and it is increasingly vulnerable because of power outages, unpaid guards and sporadic violence, the newspaper said on Thursday.

``The no.1 threat that needs attention is the continued disintegration of Russia as a civil society,'' a commission member told the newspaper. This member ranked the Russian problem as high, if not higher, than the threat to theUS from ballistic missiles that was cited by a previous panel headed by former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Other dangers noted were those resulting from China's export of missiles and dangerous technology efforts by more than a dozen extremist groups to get nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, North Korea and other hostile states with the ability to manufacture such weapons, and instability in West Asia, and South and East Asia.

The problem is made ever more complex by the growth of technology that can be used both commercially and in weapons, according to the commission.