Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is warning of dire consequences from the spread of nuclear weapons.

In a speech outlining the Obama administration's nuclear arms agenda, Clinton cited a range of troubling trends abroad. They include a failure to stop North Korea from developing a nuclear bomb, and weakness in the United Nations' agency that's responsible for monitoring nuclear programs worldwide.

Clinton says unless these trends are reversed soon, there will be a steadily growing number of nuclear-armed states and an increasing likelihood of terrorists getting ahold of nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, a panel created by Congress says the more worrisome and urgent threat is terrorists attacking the United States or its allies with biological weapons.

The panel says the government needs to move more aggressively to address the threat of bioterrorism, and that the threat is misunderstood by many.