UNITED NATIONS - In a highly awaited report spawned by the deep divide over the war in Iraq, an international panel makes more than 100 recommendations on how to deal with global threats in the 21st century, including the use of preemptive strikes, according to highlights obtained by The Associated Press.

The report by the 16-member panel, to be released on Thursday, also proposes how to expand the U.N. Security Council to reflect modern realities.

It identifies the threats facing the world today - including internal and external wars, poverty and social upheavals, failed states, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and organized crime - and proposes ways to deal with them. It also defines terrorism, something the 191-member U.N. General Assembly has tried unsuccessfully to do for years, an official close to the panel said on condition of anonymity.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed the panel a year ago in response to the deep split over the U.S.-led war on Iraq, which the Security Council refused to authorize. The U.N. announcement said the debate had "shaken the foundations of collective security and undermined confidence in the possibility of collective responses to our common problems and challenges."

Whether the panel's wide-ranging recommendations attract substantial support remains to be seen. Its members include former prime ministers of Norway and Russia, former foreign ministers of Australia and China and former U.S. national security adviser Brent Scowcroft.

"I fear that we are being looked at as Moses coming down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments," one panel member said recently, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Annan said he plans to spend his remaining two years as secretary-general focusing on reform of the United Nations and pushing the goals adopted by world leaders at the Millennium Summit in September 2000, including cutting in half the number of people living in dire poverty and ensuring that every child has an education, both by 2015.

At least two-thirds of the U.N. member states must approve any reform of the Security Council, which would require changing the U.N. Charter, and there can be no veto by a permanent member - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

The panel, chaired by former Thai Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun, could not decide on a single proposal to reform the Security Council so it proposed two options to expand it from the current 15 members to 24 members. Neither would add any new veto-wielding members.

One would add six new permanent members - two from Asia, two from Africa, one from the Americas and one from Europe - as well as three nonpermanent members elected for two-year terms.

The other proposal would create a new tier of eight semi-permanent members chosen for four-year terms, and open to re-election - two each from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. It would also add one non-permanent seat.

The report sets out benchmarks for the use of force whether in armed conflict, self-defense, or in case of major human rights violations like the 1994 Rwanda genocide.