WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- The United States should embrace a global expansion of civil nuclear power generation, in order to ensure that it and other supplier nations can build safeguards into the growing market, says a report from a State Department advisory panel.

The report highlights a vigorous debate about the extent to which regulatory regimes -- even of the tough kind it advocates -- can actually provide safeguards against a nation determined to thwart them. Critics of the report say it glosses over the risks of its strategy and ignores the weaknesses inherent in any safeguards process.

The report was commissioned by a senior U.S. arms control official from the International Security Advisory Board, a panel of former officials and experts headed by former Pentagon policy head and World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz.

The task force of members that wrote it -- in just two months, and keeping its length to a total of about 30 pages, including introduction and appendices -- was headed by former arms negotiator and government scientist C. Paul Robinson.

The report says a large expansion of nuclear power, especially in less developed countries with no existing reactor capacity, is inevitable, given growing energy demand and the rising price of alternatives.