WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced several measures on Monday to strengthen the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has been under fire for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina last year.

    The measures included upgrading the FEMA's Emergency Alert System, increasing its procurement staff and overall capabilities, improving infrastructure and information technology, and strengthening mitigation, response and recovery capabilities.

    According to the measures, the Homeland Security department would create a full-time response force of 1,500 new employees, establish a more reliable system to report on disasters as they unfold, establish a highly-trained unit of permanent employees to serve as a core disaster workforce, and develop a pilot program for deploying mobile disaster assistance trucks.

    Announcing the measures to reform the FEMA at a gathering of state emergency management directors, Chertoff also rejected criticism that the Homeland Security Department was preoccupied with terror threats which made it inadequately prepared for natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

    "I want to tell you I unequivocally and strongly reject this attempt to drive a wedge between our concerns about terrorism and our concerns about natural disasters," he said.

    Meanwhile, House Republicans plan to issue a report on Wednesday which is critical of the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, The New York Times reported Monday.

    The House report, to be issued by an 11-member, all Republican committee, says the Bush administration was informed on the day Katrina hit that levees in New Orleans, Louisiana, had been breached, even though the president and other top officials earlier said they had learned of the breach the next day.

    The report says the delay was significant, rejecting the defense given by the White House and the Homeland Security Department that the time it took to recognize the breach did not significantly affect the response.

    Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast region in late August last year, leaving more than 1,300 people dead, most of them from Louisiana, and about 1 million others displaced.

    Republicans blast Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina

    Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives plan to issue a blistering report on Wednesday critical of the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, The New York Times reported Monday.

    A draft of the report, to be issued by an 11-member, all Republican committee, says the Bush administration was informed on the day Katrina hit that levees in New Orleans, Louisiana, had been breached, even though the president and other top officials earlier said they had learned of the breach the next day, the Times said.

    Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast region on Aug. 29 last year, leaving more than 1,300 people dead, most of them from Louisiana, and about 1 million others displaced.

    The House report said the delay was significant, rejecting the defense given by the White House and the Homeland Security Department that the time it took to recognize the breach did not significantly affect the response.

    "If the levees breached and flooded a large portion of the city, then the flooded city would have to be completely evacuated," the draft report was quoted as saying.

    "Any delay in confirming the breaches would result in a delay in the post-landfall evacuation of the city," it said.

    The report, by the select House committee examining the government's response to Katrina, is the first of three major investigations into the subject. The others, for which reports are expected within one or two months, are being conducted by a Senate committee and by the White House.

    The House report blames all levels of government, from the White House to Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Naggin, for the delayed response to Katrina.

    The response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath raised troubling questions about the nation's ability to react to other threats to domestic security, the draft report says.

    In a survey by the Homeland Security Department, 14 of the nation's 50 state governments are not confident that their basic plan to respond to a catastrophic event is adequate, and 21 say they lack confidence in their mass evacuation plans, according to another report in the Times. Enditem