The US intelligence community is drawing up a secret watch-list of 25 countries where instability might precipitate US intervention, according to officials in charge of a new office set up to co-ordinate planning for nation-building and conflict prevention.

The list will be drawn up and revised every six months by the National Intelligence Council (NIC), which synthesises intelligence for strategic planning, according to Carlos Pascual, head of the newly formed office of reconstruction and stabilisation.