Officials said the programs were meant to defend the Gulf and destroy Iran's underground nuclear weapons bunkers.

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator conventional bomb, which would be integrated with the B-2 stealth bomber, is off-loaded at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.        Boeing

"When the president said he has not taken the military option off the table, he means that there must also be a viable military option," an official said.

In one project, the U.S. Air Force intends to integrate a new 30,000-pound bomb that could destroy deeply-buried military targets in Iran.

Under the $2.5 million program, the new Massive Ordnance Penetrator, developed by Boeing, would be integrated on the B-2 stealth bomber. MOP was described as a GPS-guided weapon that contains more than 5,300 pounds of conventional explosives inside a 20.5-foot long enclosure of hardened steel.

The U.S. Navy has overseen a project to overcome Iran's swarm strategy, which involves the use of up to 100 speedboats to attack and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers and destroyers in the Gulf. Based on persistent 360 degree surveillance and command and control, Lockheed Martin has sought to establish a five-mile defensive perimeter for any U.S. Navy vessel.

Both U.S. military projects were meant to mature by 2008. Over the next six months, officials said, the air force and navy would test weapons and concepts designed to achieve initial operational capability against Iran's military, particularly the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

"I've taken an informal poll inside the [U.S.] government," former CIA officer and author Robert Baer said. "The feeling is we will hit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. We won't see American troops cross the border. If this is going to happen, it is going to happen very quickly and it is going to surprise a lot of people."

Baer said the administration has been alarmed by Iran's interference in Iraq, particularly by IRGC. He said elements in the administration believe that IRGC, which has supplied weapons and improvised explosive devices to Shi'ite and Sunni militias, has become the chief obstacle to U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq.

"IRGC IED's are a casus belli for this administration," Baer quoted an anonymous White House source as saying. "There will be an attack on Iran."

On Aug. 27, French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Iran of a military attack unless Teheran limited its nuclear program. In an address to foreign diplomats based in Paris, Sarkozy, regarded as the leading U.S. ally in Europe, did not say whether France would participate in such a strike.

Administration spokespeople, who acknowledge that President George Bush plans to sanction IRGC, have dismissed Baer's assertions. They said the United States has not contemplated military action against Iran.

"The president has made it quite clear that while no options are ever taken off the table, that we are pursuing a diplomatic strategy to deal with Iran," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said on Aug. 27. "But there's simply no truth to the story that somehow a possible designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard would be a prelude to or a cover for military action.

Still, officials said the U.S. military has been targeting the IRGC presence in Iraq. They said U.S. and Iraqi forces were detaining senior operatives of the IRGC-sponsored Special Groups, which has been distributing IEDs and weapons in the Baghdad area and southern Iraq. On Aug. 28, six Iranian officials were said to have been arrested in Baghdad.

"Coalition forces will continue their focused operations to interdict Iranian supported terror groups operating in Iraq," U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said.

But Iran appears confident that the U.S. military would fail in its campaign to stabilize Iraq. On Aug. 28, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would be ready to fill the power vacuum in Iraq.

"They could have expanded much faster," IAEA director-general Mohammed El Baradei said. "Some say it's for technical reasons. My gut feeling is that it's primarily for political reasons."

The United States has quietly dismissed the IAEA assessment. U.S. officials said Iran has driven much of its uranium enrichment program underground.

In a report issued on Aug. 30, IAEA said Iran was operating 1,968 centrifuges, which was processing uranium at "well below the expected quantity for a facility of this design." The agency said more than 650 additional centrifuges were being tested or under construction.

The agency also suggested that Teheran was operating the centrifuges at 10 percent of their potential. The report, meant to be reviewed by the 35-member IAEA board of governors for a meeting on Sept. 10, said Iran was enriching the uranium at a lower level than that claimed by Teheran.

"It's difficult technology, but it's not rocket science," El Baradei said. "Through a process of trial and error, you will have the knowledge."

The report said the agency acquired information that resolved questions regarding Iran's plutonium production program. Still, the agency has sought details of Iran's so-called Green Salt Project, which included missile warhead design, as well as the construction of two centrifuge models.

"Most significantly at the moment is the mine counter-measure vessels, and since November of last year we have maintained a permanent two-ship presence rather like the U.S. Navy in their permanent presence," British Cmdr. Keith Winstanley, deputy commander of the Combined Task Forces, said.

Winstanley, the top British naval commander in the Gulf, said Britain has a range of deployment options in the Gulf. He said this included the stationing of destroyers, frigates and submarines.

"We will be improving and uplifting that presence next year, so you can expect to see more mine counter-measure vessels in the area," Winstanley said. "There is nothing melodramatic or sinister in the uplift."

Winstanley said the British Navy could draw from assets deployed in the Indian Ocean. He said the British Navy has been in close cooperation with the United States in Gulf security.

In late August, British and U.S. naval vessels conducted a mine counter-measure exercise in the Gulf. The two forces employed aircraft, surface vessels and submarines to locate fake mines.

Officials said the Berlin government has expanded sanctions against Iran to include a ban on the German export of dual-use systems. They said the decision was meant to prevent Iranian fronts in Germany to purchase equipment from Europe and the United States and reexport them to Teheran.

Under the latest directive, German companies would be unable to export any military equipment to Iran, regardless of the country of origin. Officials said German firms would also be prohibited from selling dual-use equipment to another European Union state that would serve as an Iranian intermediary.

In July 2007, German authorities launched an investigation into 50 companies suspected of supplying dual-use and military equipment to Iran. Teheran was said to have used German firms as intermediaries for the procurement of aircraft spare parts, missile components and systems for Iran's nuclear energy reactor at Bushehr.

Officials said Iran has intensified efforts to acquire military technology from Germany. They said German intelligence was working with the United States to block Teheran's campaign.