``Hitherto outer space has been militarized we concede but not weaponized. There has been no placement of weapons in outer space,'' said U.N. Under-Secretary General for disarmament affairs Jayantha Dhanapala in an interview.

``I believe it is vitally important that we should preserve outer space for peaceful purposes and the development of missile defenses should in no way violate the present non-weaponized state of outer space,'' Dhanapala told Reuters in Sydney.

The UN Department for Disarmament Affairs is headed by Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka. Mr. Dhanapala, a career diplomat in the Foreign ministry of Sri Lanka, held several positions with bodies concerned with disarmament prior to his appointment. (Biography of Jayantha Dhanapala)

Bush has given long-simmering U.S. plans to build a missile shield new impetus and says Washington intends to opt out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty -- the bedrock of nuclear stability through the Cold War.

The United States says a missile shield would be aimed at ''rogue'' states such as North Korea and Iraq.

But the plans have alarmed China and Russia and raised fears even among U.S. allies that it could spark a new arms race.

Bush's vision of a National Missile Defense involves a mix of land- and sea-based and aircraft-borne systems to shoot down incoming missiles and is likely also to feature some role for space.

Dhanapala said a commission chartered by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had endorsed a view that the United States should seek total domination of space, indicating that could be a future direction of U.S. policy.

SPACE WHIZ MILITARY CHIEF

Bush also this month appointed an expert in computer and space warfare, General Richard Myers, to head the military Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The world's nuclear powers agreed in 1967 in the Outer Space Treaty not to place nuclear weapons in space.

Dhanapala also expressed more general reservations about the U.S. president's missile defense plans and his intention to withdraw from the ABM treaty.

While U.N. member states had the freedom to decide on their own security arrangements, he said any abrogation of the treaty or multilateral push to build a missile shield could carry an ''enormous cost.''

``It's going to certainly according to the stated intentions of some countries lead to the production of more missiles,'' Dhanapala said.

``So what we are going to see is perhaps an increase in tension...we are probably going to see a deterioration in the international peace and security situation unless of course there is some kind of collective agreement among the nuclear weapons states which will help to salvage the present situation.''

China is already modernizing its relatively small collection of around 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Dhanapala said Beijing had made it clear to him that that process would be accelerated if Washington went ahead.

``My discussions with the Chinese, discussions I've had in Beijing and elsewhere, indicated this,'' he said.

High-ranking U.S. officials have blitzed around the world to consult other countries over missile defense and to explain the Bush administration's point of view.

The U.N. disarmament envoy welcomed the consultations, saying he hoped they led to agreements on disarmament.

He also said he had taken note of a suggestion by Bush that the United States would be willing to unilaterally slash its nuclear warheads as part of a missile shield plan.

But Dhanapala said the United Nations preferred multilateral treaties to unilateral promises for the simple reason that they were irreversible, and could be verified and legally enforced.

Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited.

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