The group, known as the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group,or ISOG, is also coordinating a host of other actions, which include covert assistance to Iranian dissidents and building "international outrage" toward Iran, according to the report.

The group intends to ask the U.S. Congress as early as February to increase funding for transfers of military hardware to allies in the Persian Gulf and to accelerate plans for joint military activities.

The request, which is still being formulated, is expected to include, but not be limited to, more advanced missile defense systems and early-warning radar to detect and prevent Iranian missile strikes.

"There is the perception in the Gulf that Iran is really on the rise," said Emile El-Hokayem, a researcher at the Stimpson Center,a Washington-based think tank, told The Boston Globe.

"Washington wants to prepare for a potential show down, " he said.

The existence of ISOG reflects increased planning by the Bush administration on Iran.

Syria, which has linked itself to Iran through military pacts, is a lesser focus for the group.

Its workings have been so secretive that several officials in the State Department's Near Eastern Affairs bureau said they were unaware of its existence.

The United States has repeatedly said a regime change is not its policy toward Iran, but one former U.S. official who attended ISOG meetings said he got an impression that regime change was a key goal of many of the meetings' participants.