The Hindu : U.S. says list targets China

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 11, 2002

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U.S. says list targets China

WASHINGTON MARCH. 10. In an apparrent damage control exercise, the U.S. while confirming reports of preparing for possible nuclear attacks against seven countries including Russia, said the new guidance gives greater emphasis to potential use against China, North Korea and several ``threatening'' Middle Eastern States than against Moscow.

The Pentagon's review sought to justify a change in traditional U.S. targeting, away from a focus on the Russian threat, the officials said.

It drew a distinction between more likely ``immediate'' contingencies and less likely ``potential ones'', they added.

Officials told The Washington Post that they placed a conflict with China over Taiwan, a war with North Korea and confrontations with Iraq, Iran, Libya or Syria in the ``first category,'' viewing these nations as more likely than in the past to require plans for nuclear weapons use.

The possibility of a nuclear war with Russia has been ``relegated to the status of a lesser contingency,'' they said adding only Russia has the only nuclear arsenal that rivals America's in size. While scenarios involving these countries already feature to some degree in existing nuclear plans, they are now being given added weight, they said.

. — PTI

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