A senior US military official's clamor Tuesday for the development of a new, modern arsenal of nuclear weapons may trigger another international arms race, analysts warned.

"So long as there are other countries in the world that possess enough nuclear weapons to destroy the United States of America and our way of life, we will have to deter those types of countries," said Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, head of the military's Strategic Command.

As a deterrent to attacks from other nations in the 21st century, the US Defense Department should develop an improved nuclear weapon to reduce the number of warheads it keeps on hand, he told reporters.

According to Chilton, the United States' existing warheads inventory is "too big, bigger than they need to be," although the number of nuclear weapons has been significantly reduced.

He estimated that the number would continue to decline to 25 percent of the total during the Cold War by 2012.

As the threat is different from that of the Cold War, the deterrent must also be more diverse, ranging from nuclear warheads to conventional weapons and cyber warfare capabilities, Chilton said.

Analysts said that if the Unites States develops a new arsenal of nuclear or space weapons, other countries will also follow suit, which will possibly lead to a new arms race and a rush by other countries to develop more effective and usable nuclear weapons.

On February 25, the US Defense Department announced that based on debris analysis, officials are confident that the missile intercept and destruction of an out-of-control spy satellite achieved the objective of destroying its toxic fuel tank.

A modified tactical SM-3 missile was launched on February 20 by the USS Lake Erie, positioned northwest of Hawaii to shoot down the defunct satellite.

While the satellite was the target, however, the Pentagon was hoping the missile could strike a direct hit on the tank carrying toxic fuel aboard the spacecraft.

Although US military and government officials have said at several news briefings that the mission was not designed to test US anti-satellite capabilities, the satellite shoot-down plan spurred significant concerns around the world.

US President George W. Bush's administration has requested 10 million dollars for a development program of new nuclear weapons in its 2009 budget proposal, although Congress turned down a similar request in its previous budget submission.

It is also seeking 100 million dollars for a plant to make nuclear triggers for the new weapons.

The program is controversial in part as it runs counter to the US obligation under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to work toward bringing its stockpile to zero.

The 2002 Moscow Treaty requires that Washington reduce its operationally deployed warheads to 1,700-2,220 by December 2012. In an exchange of data early last year, Russia claimed to have 4,162 strategic warheads and the United States 5,866 in its arsenal.

In January, Yuri Baluyevsky, chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, also sent a similar signal to the world, saying Russia may use nuclear weapons for the protection of the country and its allies.

"We do not intend to attack anybody. But all our partners must realize that for the protection of Russia and its allies if necessary armed forces will be used, including preventively, including the use of nuclear weapons," Baluyevsky was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying at a scientific conference of the Academy of Military Sciences.

With the emergence of new threats to security, Russia needs to update a number of provisions in the existing National Security Concept, he added.

"As life is ever-changing, it has become necessary today to update certain provisions of the concept and, what is the most important, to turn these provisions into a working mechanism for protecting our national security," Baluyevsky said.

Baluyevsky's speech came a day after Georgia said some 77 percent of the Georgians voted to join NATO in a recent referendum.

According to Nikolai Bordyuzha, general secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Georgia's possible entry into NATO will seriously change the regional geo-strategic situation.

In view of Chilton's remarks and the shooting down of the spy satellite, Washington should be very careful about the signal it sends to other nuclear powers, analysts said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2008)