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The United States will formally protest an incident in which North Korean fighter jets intercepted a US surveillance plane and illuminated it with radar weapons sights, a senior US official said Monday.

"We are in close consultations with South Korea and our other allies. We are consulting with them on how we will protest this incident, and the most appropriate way to lodge that protest," said the official, who declined to be named.

The Pentagon said Monday that the four North Korean fighters on Sunday flew within 15 meters (50 feet) of the Air Force RC-135, 240 kilometers (150 miles) off the North Korean coast in international airspace over the Sea of Japan.

The US aircraft returned to base in Japan after the confrontation, which came with the rivals dug into deep positions in a standoff over Pyongyang's twin nuclear programs.

The incident represented the most alarming military faceoff between the Cold War rivals since a nuclear crisis erupted.

The State Department warned the Stalinist state Monday not to reprocess any of the 8,000 spent fuel rods US officials believe could be used to make five or six nuclear bombs by the middle of the year.

In its latest rhetorical barrage, North Korea had Sunday accused the United States of planning a secret strike on its recently fired up Yongbyon nuclear reactor, and warned such an operation could trigger "horrifying nuclear disasters."

Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Commander Jeff Davis said two North Korean MiG-29s and what appeared to be two MiG-23s tailed the lumbering four-engined American jet for 22 minutes from 0148 GMT Sunday.

"The fighters were armed," said Davis.

The Pentagon at first said that the one North Korean jet locked its radar weapons system onto the US plane, but then said the aircraft had merely been illuminated by radar.

A lock-on would mean that the weapons system was activated, the final step before firing a missile.

The US plane "returned to base in Kadena, Japan without damage," in what Davis said was the first known interception since August 1969, when a US EC-121 was shot down over the Sea of Japan, killing 31 people.

The drama echoed the confrontation between a Chinese fighter jet and a US EP-3 surveillance plane over the South China Sea in April 2001, which sparked a crisis with Beijing, which held the 24-member crew of the plane for 11 days.

North Korea last week charged that a US RC-135 spy plane penetrated its airspace over the Sea of Japan as part of preparations for a preemptive attack. The Pentagon denied the accusation.

Pyongyang tested a cruise missile over the Sea of Japan the same day, as new South Korean President Roh Myung-Hoo was inaugurated in Seoul.

At the State Department, an official said a formal protest over the plane incident was under consideration.

"This has never been done before, it is 138 miles (222 kilometers) from the DPRK and this is the first time they have ever threatened this routine mission," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"It is a further effort by the DPRK to raise tensions."

Pyongyang has reacted angrily to joint US-South Korean military exercises due to start Tuesday that include mock peninsular battles.

Tensions have been building since the United States in October accused its Cold War foe of launching a drive to produce nuclear weapons from enriched uranium, in violation of a 1994 accord freezing a separate plutonium-based program.

Last week, US officials said North Korea had restarted a five-megawatt nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, which had been frozen under the deal.

The State Department warned North Korea on Monday not to reprocess spent fuel or to conduct a weapons test.

The warning followed reports at the weekend that US spy satellites had detected activity around the reprocessing plant at Yongbyon.

"Any moves by North Korea to either reprocess spent fuel or conduct a nuclear test would be a matter of serious concern to the entire international community," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

"All of North Korea's neighbors have made clear that this kind of development would be unwelcome and have serious consequences for them."

Boucher did not make clear if US officials believe that such a test, which would be sure to enflame the crisis, was imminent. 

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