PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced an ambitious $53 billion U.S. program to build new high-speed rail networks and make existing ones faster over the next six years.

But the plan drew immediate fire from majority Republicans in the House of Representatives, who said building high-speed rail requires private investment rather than a government plan.

Biden, who estimated he has ridden Amtrak trains between Washington and his home in Wilmington, Delaware, some 7,900 times, made a strong pitch for rail transportation to enable the United States to compete and lead internationally.

"This is about seizing the future," he said, making the announcement at Philadelphia's busy 30th Street station with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

The United States should follow the example of Japan and China and build high-speed rail, Biden said. "If we do not, you tell me how America is going to be able to lead the world in the 21st century," he said.

President Barack Obama's budget for fiscal year 2012, to be unveiled next week, includes $8 billion for the plan. The rest of the money would be allocated over the six-year time period.

Obama has said he wants to target investments in areas such as infrastructure while reducing spending to tackle the budget deficit.

Under the initiative, the Department of Transportation would choose corridors for new projects and increase U.S. use of the passenger rails.

Republicans in the House criticized the program and suggested it could face problems getting legislative approval.

In a joint statement, Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica and Railroads Subcommittee Chairman Bill Shuster expressed "extreme reservations" regarding the plan.

"This is like giving Bernie Madoff another chance at handling your investment portfolio," Mica said in the statement on the Transportation Committee's website, referring to the financier serving a 150-year prison sentence for running an estimated $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

Shuster said an unsound rail project "just prolongs the inevitable by subsidizing a failed Amtrak monopoly that has never made a profit or even broken even.

"Government won't develop American high-speed rail. Private investment and a competitive market will."

Biden's announcement follows Monday's news that Amtrak, the United States' largest passenger rail service, plans a $13.5 billion commuter rail project connecting New York City and New Jersey, reviving an idea rejected late last year by New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie, as too expensive.

The project became a lightning rod in the run-up to the November 2010 election, pitting those calling for more federal infrastructure spending against those who said such projects were too costly.

Advocates say U.S. investment in high-speed rail lags many other countries and point to China, which plans to invest $451 billion to $602 billion in its high-speed rail network between 2011 and 2015, according to the China Securities Journal.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Wendell Marsh in Washington; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – Missouri executed by lethal injection on Wednesday a man convicted for the 1991 murder, rape and kidnapping of an 11-year-old St. Louis girl.

The execution of Martin Link, the first in Missouri in nearly two years, was carried out at 12:15 a.m. (0615 GMT) Wednesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre after last-minute appeals failed, Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Cline said.

Governor Jay Nixon on Tuesday denied a clemency petition, and appeals before Missouri and U.S. courts also failed.

Nixon said nothing had changed since Link, 47, was convicted of killing Elissa Self-Braun, who disappeared walking to her school bus stop. Her body was found four days later floating in the St. Francis River, about 135 miles from her home.

Link was executed with an injection of sodium thiopental, a drug formerly made by Hospira, Inc., the only U.S. company that manufactured the drug. The company said recently that it will no longer make the drug because it does not want it to be used in executions.

Missouri's last execution was in 2009, and another man, Richard Clay, had been scheduled to die earlier this year. His sentence was commuted to life in prison at the last minute by Nixon.

The execution of Link was the fifth this year in the United States. There were 46 executions in the United States during 2010, down 12 percent from 2009. Since 1989, Missouri has executed 67 men.

(Reporting by Bruce Olson; Editing by Mary Wisniewski, Jerry Norton and Greg McCune)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The military on Tuesday issued its first new statement of strategy in seven years, moving beyond a focus on the war in Afghanistan to address the rise of China and other strategic challenges.

The 2011 national military strategy by the Joint Chiefs of Staff reaffirmed U.S. commitment to fighting violent extremism with allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan but said the military must broaden its horizons to address developing threats elsewhere.

"While we continue to refine how we counter violent extremism and deter aggression, this strategy also rightly emphasizes that our military power is most effective when employed in concert with other elements of power," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in his "Chairman's Corner" blog.

The strategy is a broad statement on how the military intends to use its forces and prioritize aid and training to help achieve U.S. security goals.

Military officials say a "whole-of-nation" approach involving not only security forces but diplomacy and nongovernmental organizations will be necessary to address many future security challenges.

"This whole-of-nation approach to foreign policy, with civilian leadership appropriately at the helm, will be essential as we address the complex security challenges before us," Mullen said.

While the last national military strategy, produced in 2004, called for the military to protect the United States, prevent surprise attacks and prevail against adversaries, the current document goes beyond that.

In addition to countering violent extremism and deterring aggression, the 2011 strategy seeks to strengthen global security through regional and international partnerships and aims to reshape the military force to meet future challenges.

"We focus more toward the future and strengthening global and regional stability and shaping the future force," a senior military officer said on condition of anonymity.

The national military strategy addresses in broad general terms how the military forces will be used. By law it must be reviewed every two years, but it is not necessarily revised unless changes are needed.

The senior military officer said the security environment facing the United States had changed substantially in seven years since the 2004 strategy was issued.

The United States faces a broad range of challenges in the Asia-Pacific region, from the rise of India and China, to North Korea's nuclear program, the shifting global economic balance and a fierce competition for natural resources, he said.

The strategy calls for improving global security by forging deeper military-to-military relationships and cooperation with China and other Asia-Pacific countries.

The senior officer said the U.S. military had to "achieve our mission" in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also must look beyond those conflicts and "start recognizing that the strategic environment that's elsewhere needs to be dealt with."

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)