The economic crisis is jeopardizing the nation's ability to handle public-health emergencies and possible bioterrorist attacks, according to government leaders and a new report.

The revelation that F.B.I. investigators believe that the anthrax attacks were carried out by Dr. Ivins, an Army biodefense scientist who committed suicide last week after he learned that he was about to be indicted for murder, has already re-ignited a debate: Has the unprecedented boom in biodefense research made the country less secure by multiplying the places and people with access to dangerous germs?

Deadly germs may be more likely to be spread due to a biodefence lab accident than a biological attack by terrorists.

If terrorists ever unleashed a biological weapon, unusual molecules normally found in the blood of llamas could quickly help warn of the attack, scientists now report.

The U.S. government is building a highly classified facility to research biological weapons, but its closed-door approach has raised concerns.

In the past five years, new technology has made it easier to genetically modify microbes and even create new ones from scratch. Some worry that the developments could lead to novel and more dangerous kinds of bioterror threats.

While the Pentagon struggles to deploy a huge antimissile system against a presumed threat from North Korean rockets, biologists are working to develop tiny "antimicrobial" defenses against harmful germs, including from biological weapons.

Meliodosis, an orphaned tropical disease, is getting new attention and funding because of its potential as a biological weapon.

More than 750 of the nation's
leading microbiological researchers have openly called on the Bush
Administration to return the nation's scientific focus to more basic
pathogens and away from the few rare bacteria and viruses that could be used as weapons by terrorists.

Senior scientific advisers to the World Health Organisation (WHO) have recommended the creation of a genetically modified version of the smallpox virus to counter any threat of a bioterrorist attack.