WASHINGTON, March 11 (Xinhuanet) -- US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has outlined a vision for remaking the American military more engaged in heading off threats prior to hostilities and enhancing US influence around the world, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

    In the new, classified planning document, which is still in thereview process, Rumsfeld tells the military to focus on four "core problems," none of them involving traditional military confrontation, the report said.

    The US armed services are told to develop forces that can: build partnerships with failing states to defeat internal terrorist threats; defend the homeland, including offensive strikes against terrorist groups planing attacks; influence the choices of countries at a strategic crossroads; and prevent the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction by hostile states and terrorists groups.

    The document sets out Rumsfeld's agenda for a recently begun massive review of defense spending and strategy, a process that isconducted only once every four years.

    As the process is a quadrennial event, the review, being conducted by senior members of Rumsfeld's staff along with senior officers from each of the armed services, represents the Bush administration's best chance to refashion the military into a force capable to delivering on the ambitious security and foreign-policy goals that President George W. Bush has put forth since theSept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the report said.

    Rumsfeld's goals mark a significant departure from recent reviews. The document, taking account of both the terrorists attacks and the military struggle in Iraq, emphasizes newer problems, such as battling terrorists and insurgents, over conventional military challengers.

    His approach will likely trigger major shifts in the weapons systems that the Pentagon buy, and even more fundamental changes in the training and deployment of US troops throughout the world, the report quoted defense officials involved in crafting the document or in the review as saying.

    "The question we are asking is : How do you prevent problems from becoming crises and crises from becoming all-out conflicts?" one senior defense official involved in writing the guidance told The Wall Street Journal.

    The document is driven by the belief that the United States is engaged in a continuous global struggle that extends far beyond specific battlegrounds, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and the vision is for a military that is far more proactive, focused on changing the world instead of just responding to conflicts and assuming greater prominence in countries in which the United States isn't at war, the report said.

    The document, when completed, will be sent to the Congress, likely early next year, but the Congress doesn't have a vote on the review, which will be used by the administration to guide its decisions on strategy and spending over the next several years, according to the report. Enditem