quote:

US to adopt narrower policy on using nuclear arms

By DESMOND BUTLER and ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press Writers Desmond Butler And Robert Burns, Associated Press Writers – 45 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is adopting a new policy limiting the circumstances under which the U.S. would use nuclear weapons, keeping with the president's pledge to give the nuclear arsenal a less prominent role in U.S. defense strategy.

In line with an in-depth review of U.S. nuclear weapons policy, the administration also hopes to persuade Russia to agree to open talks on mutual cuts in nuclear arsenals that go beyond a new arms treaty to be signed this week, U.S. officials said.

The nuclear weapons policy review to be released Tuesday is the first since 2001. It would not radically change U.S. policy, but officials said it will include language that reflects President Barack Obama's commitment to move toward a nuclear free world. By narrowing the conditions in which the U.S. might use nuclear arms, Obama hopes to strengthen U.S. arguments that other countries should either reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons or forgo developing them.

These officials said the administration's new nuclear policy would stop short of renouncing the use of nuclear weapons except in retaliation to atomic attack, as some activists have advocated. But it would describe the weapons' purpose as "primarily" or "fundamentally" to deter or respond to a nuclear attack.