(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Washington (CNSNews.com) – A bipartisan commission appointed by Congress is warning the incoming Obama administration that it must not rule out the use of “direct force” – military action – against Iran and North Korea, if diplomatic negotiations fail to stop their nuclear weapons programs.

At a news conference Wednesday, CNSNews.com asked the commission’s chairman, former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), if the panel was recommending that the U.S. take “military action” against Iran and North Korea, if negotiations and other tactics fail.

“We cannot omit from our range of options the use of direct force if other means are unsuccessful,” Graham said.

The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) Proliferation and Terrorism report contains a series of recommendations to the incoming Obama administration on how to deal with the threat of weapons of mass destruction.

As one of its recommendations, the commission recommends that, as a top priority, “the next administration must stop the Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapons programs.”

The commission was explicit in its language.

“In the case of Iran, this requires the permanent cessation of all of Iran’s nuclear weapons-related efforts,” the commissioners wrote. “In the case of North Korea, this requires the complete abandonment and dismantlement of all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs.”

The bipartisan panel of former congressmen and experts warned President-elect Obama, however, in no uncertain terms:

“If, as appears likely, the next administration seeks to stop these programs through direct diplomatic engagement with the Iranian and North Korean governments, it must do so from a position of strength, emphasizing both the benefits to them of abandoning their nuclear weapons programs and the enormous costs of failing to do so,” the authors wrote. “Such engagement must be backed by the credible threat of direct action in the event that diplomacy fails.”

“This is a very serious issue,” Graham said, “not only by potentially increasing the nuclear capability of North Korea, adding Iran to one of the nuclear weapons states in the world would become extremely destabilizing to their (respective) regions.”

Graham explained that if North Korea, for instance, continues to add to its “stockpile” then the pressure on South Korea and Japan would weigh heavily, making it very difficult for them to resist responding.

He also said that if Iran acquired nuclear weapons then “Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other countries are going to be under pressure to match Iran’s (nuclear) capabilities.”

“The administration must give these issues the priorities they deserve,” Graham added.

The commission’s sobering report -- "World at Risk" -- goes beyond taking steps to prevent Iran and North Korea from possessing uranium-enrichment or plutonium-reprocessing capabilities.

Former Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.), the commission’s co-chairman, said that the “bipartisan, in fact nonpartisan” panel had spent more than six months assessing the risk of terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction, and its “most important” finding is that the risk is growing – not because we have not made progress, but because our enemies have adapted to the changing environment.

Talent warned that the threat of biological weapons outweighs that of nuclear devices because biological weapons are easier to manufacture and duplicate.

Graham said that, based on 250 interviews with academics, scientists, the military and politicians, one conclusion was unanimous: “WMDs will be used somewhere by 2013.”

The commission was established in 2007 as a direct response to the 9/11 Commission warning that “the greatest danger of another catastrophic attack in the United States will materialize if the world’s most dangerous terrorists acquire the world’s most dangerous weapons.”