Officials: Nuclear Strategy A Deterrent

President George W. Bush's top foreign-affairs advisers say the United States must be prepared to use nuclear weapons to deter attacks involving weapons of mass destruction. But in an effort to ease alarm overseas, they said there were no plans to do so.

"We all want to make the use of weapons of mass destruction less likely," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday. "The way that you do that is to send a very strong signal to anyone who might try to use weapons of mass destruction against the United States that they'd be met with a devastating response."

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States has never ruled out using nuclear weapons against a nuclear-armed enemy, a policy he said should deter any would-be attacker.

"We think it is best for any potential adversary out there to have uncertainty in his calculus," Powell said.

Rice, Powell and military and congressional leaders were responding to weekend reports that the Pentagon has told Congress it is studying the possible use of nuclear weapons against countries that threaten the United States.

The classified "nuclear posture review" sent to Congress says the Pentagon is developing contingency plans for using nuclear weapons against countries that are developing weapons of mass destruction.

The report identified seven nations: China, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Russia and Syria.

On TV talk shows Sunday, administration officials sought to walk a line between asserting America's willingness to use nuclear weapons, and calming the public and allies troubled by suggestions the United States might be moving closer to employing them.

The issue was especially sensitive on a day when Vice President Dick Cheney was leaving on a 12-country tour that includes stops in a number of Arab states certain to be upset about the targeting of Iraq, Libya and Syria.

Powell said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" that the report emerged from "prudent" planning that must "give some consideration as to the range of options the president should have available to him to deal with those kinds of threats."

"Right now, today, not a single nation on the face of the earth is being targeted by an American nuclear weapon on a day-to-day basis," Powell said.

"We should not get all carried away with some sense that the United States is planning to use nuclear weapons in some contingency that is coming up in the near future," he said. "It is not the case."

Powell acknowledged the military was considering whether to "modify or update or change" current nuclear weapons to meet new threats.

Rice said on NBC television's "Meet the Press" that the report emphasizes efforts to make the use of nuclear arms less likely through improved intelligence and conventional weapons.

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stressed that the report is "not a plan."

"This preserves for the president all the options that a president would want to have in case this country or our friends and allies were attacked with weapons of mass destruction, be they nuclear, biological, chemical or, for that matter, high explosives," Myers said on CNN's "Late Edition."

Sen. John Warner of Virginia, who is the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he would ask the administration Monday to clarify its position. He and Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat who is a fellow committee member, painted the document as an outline of options for the president.

"Frankly, I don't mind some of these renegade nations (thinking) twice about the willingness of the United States to take action to defend our people and our values and our allies," Lieberman said.

But, he added on CNN: "It's very important for the American people or people around the world not to overreact to the news stories."

News of the report did trigger consternation and disbelief in some quarters overseas.

Libya's African affairs minister, Ali Abd al-Salam al-Turiki, told reporters in Cairo he found the report hard to believe.

"I don't think this is true," he said. "I don't think America is going to destroy the world."

Both the British Foreign Office and the Italian defense minister dismissed the plans as routine military planning. A NATO spokesman said it was too early to comment.

"Military forces from time to time evaluate their long-term programs even when it is hypothetical," Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

Outside governments, many perceived the U.S. plans as a threat.

"The order indicates that the U.S. administration is going to wreak havoc on the whole world in order to establish its hegemony and domination," said the conservative Tehran Times newspaper, which is close to Iran's hard-liners.

"America thinks that if a military threat looms large over the head of these seven countries, they will give up their logical demands," former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

The Russian government was silent Sunday on the U.S. report to Congress, but some commentators there called it an unwelcome threat.

The United States "has always seen and sees the U.S.S.R. and post-Soviet Russia as a geopolitical rival," Col.-Gen. Leonid Ivashov, the former head of the Defense Ministry's department for international cooperation, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

"It's about time Russian politicians realized this and stopped having illusions that Washington wishes Moscow well and prosperity," said Ivashov, an outspoken hawk who was dismissed last year.

Dmitry Rogozin, a leading Russian lawmaker with close ties to the Kremlin, accused Washington of deliberately organizing the leak in order to intimidate Russia at a time of increasing strain in U.S.-Russian ties. Relations, which had improved dramatically after Sept. 11, have recently been marred by trade disputes over a U.S. decision to introduce new steel tariffs and a Russian ban on U.S. poultry imports.

"They've brought out a big stick — a nuclear stick that is supposed to scare us and put us in our place," Rogozin said on NTV television.

Political analyst Vyacheslav Nikonov suggested the report came at an inauspicious time for Washington, which has recently involved itself in Georgia, Russia's neighbor to the south. U.S. troops are to arrive there this month to train an anti-terrorist force. Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his approval to the U.S. plans, despite initial strong protests from top officials and lawmakers.

Menzies Campbell, spokesman for Britain's third-party Liberal Democrats, was quoted by The Observer newspaper as saying the U.S. policy "completely changes the terms of debate about nuclear deterrence."

"Britain will have to think very carefully now about its support for systems such as the national missile defense system," Campbell was quoted as saying.