THE US: As Vice-President Dick Cheney set off on a 10-day 12-nation tour seeking support for US policy in the Middle East and West Asia, senior US officials yesterday sought to head off a brewing international storm over a secret US policy review that pinpoints parts of Asia and the Middle East as potential US nuclear battlegrounds.
Iraq's Vice-President, Mr TahaYassin Ramadan, said yesterday Iraq would not allow UN weapons inspectors to return. "Iraq's rejection of the teams of spies to return back to Iraq is firm and won't change," he said, referring to the weapons inspectors.
The US wants UN inspectors to return to check if Baghdad is developing weapons of mass destruction, and speculation is mounting that an Iraqi refusal could trigger a US attack aimed at toppling President Saddam Hussein.
According to the classified report leaked to US media, the Nuclear Policy Review calls for a shift away from the Cold War posture of using the US nuclear arsenal to deter a nuclear strike from the former Soviet Union.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday that the Pentagon study outlined a contingency plan to use nuclear weapons against at least seven countries - China, Russia, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria. The New York Times said yesterday the secret report provided to Congress on January 8th also called for the development of new nuclear weapons that would be better suited to strike targets in Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Libya.
The review identifies new contingencies in which US nuclear weapons might be used, specifically "an Iraqi attack on Israel or its neighbours, or a North Korean attack on South Korea, or a military confrontation over the Taiwan Strait". It also discusses a possible resumption of US nuclear testing and the development of new US nuclear weapons to update the US arsenal.
It calls into question too the adherence of the Bush administration to a traditional policy of not targeting non-nuclear nations and continued US respect for a moratorium on nuclear testing.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, and the White House national security adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, both insisted that the review marked no new departure in US policy. "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," Mr Powell said. "So this is prudent military planning and it is the kind of planning I think the American people would expect."
Speaking on the CBS programme Face the Nation, Mr Powell denied any plans for either renewed testing or new weapons development. "We are not developing brand new nuclear weapons and we are not planning to undergo any testing," he said.
The review should surprise no one, Ms Rice told NBC's Meet the Press. "No one should be surprised that the United States worries about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction ... and that it has been long-standing American policy that the President reserves his options on determining how to respond should some state use weapons of mass destruction," she said.
Both Ms Rice and Mr Powell emphasised the transformation of Moscow from a Cold War enemy to a strategic friend. "The Soviet Union is gone and Russia has fundamentally changed with respect to its relationship to the United States," Mr Powell said. However, he added, fears that hostile nations are developing nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction also shaped the report.
"There are nations out there developing weapons of mass destruction and prudent planners have to give some consideration as to the range of options the President should have available to him to deal with those kind of threats," he said.
The report argues that a new generation of hard-tipped nuclear weapons could be developed and deployed to destroy bunkers containing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction hidden underground by hostile powers.
Mr Cheney, who arrived in London last night, will hold talks with US allies on how to "deal with the threat of Iraq", Ms Rice said yesterday. She said he would "talk about the broad strategic challenges" the US and its allies face in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, senior US officials pledged yesterday to wipe out any remaining pockets of al-Qaeda and their Taliban allies as US-led forces stepped up their ground and air battles in Afghanistan.
"This is one of the more important operations of the war: to make certain that they cannot regroup," Ms Rice said.