The Pentagon has approved the development of a genetically modified "super-anthrax" bacterium to test US defences against biological attack, overriding concerns that the research could violate a 1972 germ warfare treaty.

According to Milton Leitenberg, an expert on biological warfare at the University of Maryland, the Defence Department had intended to update its vaccine before the September 11 attacks, but postponed the project after the news was leaked to the press. After September 11 the plan was "re-approved", he said.

The New York Times said the defence intelligence agency had been told to develop a potentially more potent form of anthrax to test the vaccine that the US plans to supply to its own soldiers. The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.

Russian scientists engineered the superbug in the early 1990s and by 1997 are reported to have produced a strain that overcame their own vaccine in hamsters.

It was that "breakthrough" that raised US anxiety about the nation's anthrax defences.

The launch of the US development project had been delayed for several weeks while Pentagon lawyers tried to decide whether the project would represent an infringement of the 1972 biological weapons convention.

According to The New York Times, the lawyers have decided that the superbug project is "fully consistent" with the germ treaty. The treaty allows states to make and stockpile biological weapons if they have "justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes".

John Wolfsthal, a specialist on proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the definition of that clause was open to interpretation. "The question of intent has a lot to do with it, and that's where the law gets fuzzy," he said. The scope of the project was also a factor in distinguishing between offensive and defensive research work.

He doubted there would be a significant international outcry over the proposals in the context of the anti-terrorism campaign.

However, only two months before the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the Bush administration forfeited some of the international goodwill on which it is now relying to build up its biological warfare defences. In July the US rejected a draft agreement designed to enforce the ban on biological weapons - to the dismay of many of Washington's allies.

US objections were based on the potential threat to corporate intellectual property rights and to national security, implied by the international inspections regime included in the agreement.

The chief US representative at negotiations over the agreement, Donald Mahley, said unlimited visits to pharmaceutical or defence installations by foreign inspectors could be used to gather strategic or commercial intelligence.

The new Pentagon plans to produce a super-anthrax may generate fresh international demands for a new inspections framework to satisfy the international community that the US is not developing a new biological arsenal.

GUARDIAN [ http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/2001/10/25/FFXP07V06TC.html ]