SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 17: Iraq has joined the list of conflicts that have deepened solidarity among Muslims and helped spread radical Islamic ideology, according to the report by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA think tank.

The report - entitled Mapping the Global Future - said that facilitated by global communications, the revival of Muslim identity will create a framework for the spread of radical Islamic ideology inside and outside the Middle East, including Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Western Europe, where religious identity has traditionally not been as strong.

This revival, the CIA study added, has been accompanied by a deepening solidarity among Muslims caught up in national or regional separatist struggles, such as Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq, Kashmir, Mindanao, and southern Thailand, and has emerged in response to government repression, corruption, and ineffectiveness.

Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of "professionalized" terrorists, the report said adding: "The Al Qaeda membership that was distinguished by having trained in Afghanistan will gradually dissipate, to be replaced in part by the dispersion of the experienced survivors of the conflict in Iraq."

Iraq provides terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills," David B. Low, the National Intelligence Officer for Transnational Threats said while releasing the CIA report.

"There is even, under the best scenario, over the time, the likelihood that some of the jihadis who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries," he added.

The 119-page report is intended to help the White House and other policymakers prepare for probable challenges by tracing how key trends may develop and influence world events over the next 15 years.