WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The US military is planning to play a more rapid and robust role in responding to domestic catastrophic disasters or terrorist attacks.

    The Pentagon is drafting recommendations for improving the military's response to devastating attacks or disasters, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

    The planning for an expanded US military role in domestic catastrophes was part of a US government-wide review of "lessons learned" from Hurricane Katrina, the Post said.

    The Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, killing more than 1000 people and displacing millions of people.

    The demand for large-scale military resources in terrorist attacks or catastrophic disasters was "inevitable," the paper quoted Paul McHale, US assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, as saying.

    However, McHale said that the expanded active-duty military response would be limited to rare, mass calamities or attacks in which thousands of lives were at risk -- such as a category 4 hurricane, or a terrorist strike involving chemical, biological ornuclear weapons, according to the paper.

    He also said that the US troops might also play a role in enforcing a quarantine in the case of a pandemic outbreak of avianflu or other disease.

    Voicing his concern about a possible avian flu pandemic, US President George W. Bush said on October 4 that he was considering using the military to enforce a quarantine if the pandemic broke out in part of the United States. Enditem