The United States and Czech Republic are negotiating on a missile defense treaty to allow for a possible U.S. radar in the European country, spokesman Jan Hlousek said Tuesday.

A newly declassified intelligence budget showed that the U.S. government spent $43.5 billion (EUR30.23 billion) on intelligence in 2007.

Consumer Confidence Index fell to its lowest level in two years, causing worries for retailers about the forthcoming holiday shopping season.

Turkey expects urgent action from the United States to destroy Kurdish insurgent bases in north Iraq, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.

Anti-war demonstrators marched in US cities to call for an immediate end to the war in Iraq and a cut-off of funding by the US Congress.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has defended new U.S. sanctions on Iran designating Tehran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and its elite Quds force as a supporter of terrorism in the Middle East.

If Iran is attacked by the U.S. military it will respond with an "even more decisive", the head of Iran 's elite Revolutionary Guards said, according to an Iranian news agency.

As it ramps up its rhetoric against Iran, the Bush Administration has added some bite to its bark, announcing sweeping sanctions against the Iranian military and the country's largest banks.

Bush administration insists new sanctions against Iran are just necessary because the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Quds Force allegedly are stirring up trouble in Iraq and elsewhere.

US President George W Bush says a missile defence system in Europe is urgent because Iran could be working on weapons capable of striking the United States.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered tougher oversight of private guards in Iraq, including tighter rules on the use of force, following deadly shootings involving US security contractor Blackwater.

Towering wildfires burning out of control across southern California have claimed the lives of at least five people, three of them elderly evacuees from the San Diego area.