WASHINGTON?US President Barack Obama plans "dramatic reductions" in the country's arsenal of nuclear weapons as part of a sweeping policy review, a senior administration official told AFP on Monday.
The review, due to be completed this month, "will point to dramatic reductions in the stockpile, while maintaining a strong and reliable deterrent through the investments that have been made in the budget," the official said.
It will also "point to a greater role for conventional weapons in deterrence" and rule out the need to develop low-yield "bunker-buster" nuclear weapons for penetrating underground targets, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates was due to meet Obama on Monday and was expected to present final options on the "Nuclear Posture Review," which was initially supposed to be released in December.
Gates, an influential figure in Obama's cabinet and former CIA director, has been portrayed by arms control advocates as reluctant to back major changes in the country's nuclear arms policy.
It remains unclear how Obama will decide the crucial question of whether the United States should openly declare the conditions for the possible use of nuclear weapons, or retain ambiguous language.
Some of Obama's allies in Congress are pushing to change standing US policy that permits using nuclear weapons in response to a biological or chemical attack, even against a country without an atomic bomb.
The lawmakers want Obama to declare that the exclusive purpose of the arsenal is to deter nuclear attack.
In April, Obama promised in a speech in Prague to work towards a world without nuclear weapons, and has called for nuclear powers to make major cuts in stockpiles in return for stepped up global efforts to counter proliferation.
The policy review "will be an important step forward in pursuing the goal of reversing the spread of nuclear weapons and seeking a world without them," the official said.
Amid growing concern over Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, the Obama administration is pushing to bolster the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which comes up for review this year.
The officials said the US policy review will call for funds for maintaining the current nuclear arsenal, which the administration believes will pave the way for reducing the country's overall stockpile.
"When we have more confidence in the long-term viability of our weapons systems, then our ability to reduce the number of weapons we must keep in the stockpile is enhanced," Gates said last year.
But he also has said the review may call for some new designs for nuclear weapons that would be "safer and more reliable."
Washington's policy review comes as the United States and Russia appear close to a new deal to slash their nuclear arsenals, despite Moscow's concerns about Washington's latest missile defense plans.
The broad outlines of a new treaty on nuclear weapons have been clear since a summit in July, when Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev agreed to slash the number of warheads on either side to between 1,500 and 1,675.
The presidents also agreed that the number of carriers capable of delivering the warheads should be limited to between 500 and 1,100.
The United States has said it currently has some 2,200 nuclear warheads, while Russia is believed to have about 3,000.
The administration is also pushing the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would ban all nuclear tests, whether military or civilian in nature.
The UN General Assembly adopted the treaty on September 10, 1996 but it has not yet entered into force because countries such as the United States, Iran and Israel have yet to ratify the treaty.
