The document outlines the U.S. policies in the sphere of nuclear deterrent for the next decade and includes an assessment of current and future nuclear threats to the country.

"The Nuclear Posture Review will be a foundational document for this administration... It's intended to be a practical work plan for the agenda laid out by President Barack Obama," Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Miller told U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday.

Miller said that the document was originally scheduled to be released in March, but defense officials took additional time "needed to address the range of issues under consideration in the report."

U.S. President Barack Obama said last year that as long as a nuclear threat existed, the U.S. would retain its nuclear capability, although it would work to reduce its arsenal. He has also outlined his vision of the future nuclear-free world.

Miller said on Wednesday that the draft nuclear doctrine outlines concrete steps toward the achievement of these goals and lists measures aimed to increase the effectiveness and security of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
"It is essential that the U.S. continues to invest in its nuclear arsenal and infrastructure while pursuing a nuclear-free world. Guaranteeing the safety, security and effectiveness of our stockpile, coupled with broader research and development efforts, will allow us to pursue nuclear reductions without compromising our security," he said.

Miller also said that the document has been developed with regard to a new strategic arms reduction pact between the United States and Russia, which has been in the works since April last year.

"U.S. and Russian negotiators are now meeting in Geneva to complete an agreement that will reduce operationally deployed strategic nuclear weapons to their lowest levels in decades," the official said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to coordinate the final details of the replacement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 1), which expired in December last year, during her visit to Moscow on March 18-19.

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The helicopter's main mission would be to assist military investigators in the unthinkable: Enter an American city after a nuclear attack in order to detect radiation levels, map and photograph damage.

"It's for a worst-case scenario," said project leader Kevin Kochersberger, a research associate professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Virginia Tech Unmanned Systems Laboratory. His team consists of several graduate and undergraduate students from the mechanical engineering and electrical and computer engineering departments.

Kochersberger and his team re-engineered a remote-controlled Yamaha-built Unmanned Aerial Vehicle RMAX helicopter to fly in fully autonomous mode.

They also created flight control software algorithms that will direct the helicopter to radioactive sources on its own accord. To carry out various missions, the researchers outfitted the helicopter with various "plug-and-play payloads" as the vehicle's weight capacity is limited.

The payloads are easily loadable and unloadable boxes that fit snugly under the helicopter's main body, carrying devices that would detect radiation levels in the atmosphere and on the ground, and take video and still images of damage. Flight control software would allow the mission to be changed mid-flight.

One payload is unique: A miniature tray-like robot on treads that can be launched via a tether wire from the helicopter to collect evidence. The helicopter would hover over the robot, and pull it back via the wire. A student team is building this robot, which will boast not only "chunk" sampling capability, but also a miniature vacuum which could suck up dust and dirt.

The robot is expected to easily maneuver any terrain, including expected bomb craters, as part of its investigation, said Michael Rose, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, from Gilroy, Calif. The team plans to make the robot water proof, in the event that it comes across water - busted water mains, lakes, rain puddles, etc. "The electronics must be protected from the harmful elements," Rose said.

The group also designed a downward-looking stereo camera system mounted to the helicopter, to image affected areas. The cameras would allow for computerized 3-D terrain mapping of affected areas, an absolute necessity to understand the characteristics of the blast. It is expected that the helicopter will have night vision capabilities, and enhanced imaging technologies that improve vision through smoke and fog as the project progresses, Kochersberger said.

The project, already funded at $735,000 with an additional $650,000 allocated for 2010, is overseen by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency and spearheaded by the Department of Energy's Savannah River National Laboratory. Plans call for the helicopters to be mission-ready in three years.

Department of Defense personnel already have visited Blacksburg to watch a demonstration as the craft zeroed in on a small, planted radioactive source at Kentland Farm, several miles from the Virginia Tech campus. More testing
is underway, with another DoD demonstration planned for 2010 in Savannah, Ga.

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A review of nuclear strategy underway "will point to dramatic reductions in the stockpile, while maintaining a strong and reliable deterrent through the investments that have been made in the budget," a senior administration official told AFP.

The review, due to be completed later this month, will also "point to a greater role for conventional weapons in deterrence" and rule out the need to develop low-yield "bunker-buster" nuclear weapons for penetrating underground targets, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates was expected on Monday to present final options to Obama on the long-delayed "Nuclear Posture Review," which was initially supposed to be released in December.

Gates, an influential figure in Obama's cabinet and former CIA director, has been portrayed by arms control advocates as reluctant to back major changes in nuclear arms policy.

It remains unclear how Obama will decide the crucial question of whether the United States should openly declare the conditions for the possible use of nuclear weapons, or retain ambiguous language.

Some of Obama's allies in Congress are pushing to change standing US policy that permits using nuclear weapons in response to a biological or chemical attack, even against a country without an atomic bomb.

The lawmakers want Obama to declare that the exclusive purpose of the arsenal is to deter nuclear attack, which would allow for more drastic cuts in the arsenal.

Amid an intense debate among Obama's advisers, arms control experts and media reports say such a shift appears unlikely and the Obama may back only modest policy changes.

Accounts of the long-delayed policy review suggest "a very conventional document that will fall far short of the president's rhetoric," Jeffrey Lewis, recently wrote on ArmsControlWonk.com.

The effort likely will produce "a very status-quo document," said Lewis, a leading expert on proliferation.

In April, Obama promised in a speech in Prague to work towards a world without nuclear weapons and to put an end to "Cold War thinking" in US strategy.

He has called for nuclear powers to make major cuts in stockpiles in return for stepped up global efforts to counter the spread of atomic weapons.

During the Cold War, US nuclear strategy focused on two potential enemies, the Soviet Union and China.

Current strategy assumes six possible adversaries -- China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria and a terrorist organization with weapons of mass destruction, according an analysis of strategy documents by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a Washington-based non-partisan group.

Three of those possible "adversaries" do not have nuclear arms and two have signed on to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

A more restrictive policy on the use of nuclear weapons would mean rewriting the current US nuclear strategy, the FAS said.

Obama also must weigh whether to withdraw remaining shorter-range, "tactical" nuclear weapons from several NATO bases in Europe, an issue his deputies have reportedly raised with allies.

Amid concern over Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, the Obama administration is pushing to bolster the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which comes up for review this year.

Washington's policy review comes as the United States and Russia appear close to a new deal to slash their nuclear arsenals, despite Moscow's concerns about Washington's latest missile defense plans.

The broad outlines of a new treaty on nuclear weapons have been clear since a summit in July, when Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev agreed to slash the number of warheads on either side to between 1,500 and 1,675.

The presidents also agreed that the number of carriers capable of delivering the warheads should be limited to between 500 and 1,100.

The administration is also pushing the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would ban all nuclear tests, whether military or civilian.

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"A rare opportunity to acquire a piece of Cold War history," read the sale advert on the website.

"Set in a stunning location with glorious views. Your own nuclear bunker within a plot of land and much original equipment."

After being advertised at a starting price of 500 pounds late Thursday, a bidding war saw the price of the underground shelter rocket.

Early Monday the price stood at 19,300 pounds after 39 bids.

Late Sunday, eBay listed the top bid as more than 27,000 pounds but later cancelled this offer saying it had been an "unsound bid". The auction ends on March 7.

The bunker came into service in 1959 and was used by the Royal Observer Corps, a civilian defence organisation composed mainly of volunteers who had the task of reporting nuclear attack and fallout.

The shelter, in the Peak District National Park in central England, was fully operational until 1991 when it was decommissioned as the Soviet Union collapsed.

Measuring 50 feet by 50 feet (15 metres), the bunker is on farmland and in an "elevated position with panoramic views," says the seller.

The bunker, which is "accessed via a metal hatch and shaft", lies 15 feet underground and has two rooms -- a chemical toilet and monitoring room -- and two ventilation shafts.

As well as furniture, the buyer will also receive a siren box, enamel bucket, jerry cans and rope for hauling heavy items up the shaft, said the advert.

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"Inshallah (God willing), in the next Iranian year as ordered by the president, we may start the construction of two new enrichment sites," Ali Akbar Salehi told ISNA news agency.

Salehi said the new sites would be built inside mountains to avert any possible "attacks."

The enrichment capacity of the proposed plants will be of the size of Iran's existing uranium enrichment facility located in the central city of Natanz, Salehi said.

"In these two new sites we intend to use new generation centrifuges," he added.

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South Korea's Yonhap news agency, quoting a diplomatic source, said the visit by Kim Kye-Gwan would be in return for a trip to Pyongyang in December by US envoy Stephen Bosworth.

"I believe the schedule for Kim's visit has already been fixed," it quoted the source as saying in a report from Beijing, where Kim has been holding talks with his Chinese counterparts. No precise date was mentioned.

China, which hosts six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, is trying to persuade the North to return to the negotiations which it quit last April -- a month before its second atomic weapons test.

But this week's meetings in Beijing have been hard going, according to media reports, with Pyongyang sticking to its demands that UN sanctions be lifted before it rejoins the nuclear dialogue.

The North also wants US agreement to hold talks about a formal peace treaty before it comes back to the forum also grouping South Korea, Japan and Russia.

It was unclear whether Kim's visit would go ahead if the parties fail to agree on restarting the nuclear dialogue.

Yonhap said Wu Dawei, China's chief nuclear negotiator who has been meeting Kim, would travel to other six-party member nations after the Lunar New Year this weekend.

"We exchanged important opinions with China on the matters of the peace treaty on the Korean peninsula and the resumption of the six-party talks," Kim told reporters in Beijing Thursday.

"Results of the meeting will be made known later."

China is North Korea's only major ally, its main trade partner and its chief supplier of desperately needed food and oil. But it was not clear whether it would be able to coax the North back to dialogue.

The two sides were trying Thursday to narrow differences on economic assistance, Yonhap said.

South Korean officials estimate the North will run short of 1.29 million tons of grain this year, equivalent to almost four months' supply.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon's top political advisor Lynne Pascoe was due Friday to wind up a mission to North Korea aimed partly at reviving the disarmament talks.

Pascoe met Kim Yong-Nam, the North's official number two leader on Thursday. He passed on a message from UN chief Ban Ki-moon to leader Kim Jong-Il, the North's media said, but no details were given.

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Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh says he has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of his country's latest move.

"I reflected to the agency the intention of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to start its nuclear enrichment activities of uranium up to 20 percent, I repeat up to 20 percent, in order to produce required fuel for Tehran's research reactor," Soltinieh said.

Iran's Foreign Ministry defended the enrichment, saying it is part of the nation's peaceful nuclear program.

Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast argued enrichment is not inconsistent with trading fuel abroad, since, he said Tehran is ready to discuss the matter if "opposing" parties are ready.

Those opposing parties, in particular the United States, are pushing to sanction Iran for further enriching its uranium stockpile instead of accepting an offer to have it boosted overseas.

The IAEA has offered to send the uranium to Russia and France for enrichment and conversion into fuel rods for the Tehran reactor.

The move would largely foil, at least for the time being, any Iranian plans to seek nuclear weapons. Tehran denies its nuclear program has a military component.

A U.S. Defense Department spokesman said the United States will try to get new U.N. sanctions placed on Iran within weeks.

France, another member of the U.N. Security Council, has said it also favors stronger action. Russian officials have also shown more willingness to consider what would be a fourth round of sanctions.

But veto-wielding China is urging more diplomacy.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu expressed hope all involved will work to advance "dialogue and negotiation."

China, with strong business ties to Iran, has long opposed imposing more restrictions.

Iranian envoy Soltinieh says Tehran has other options for the IAEA to consider.

"We are ready to separate the required material for exchange," Soltinieh said. "We are going to separate it from Natanz, [have it] existing in a separate container, under the seals of the IAEA, and under the custody of the IAEA in Iran. [This] means that we are not going to use it for any purpose and it will stay in Iran until the fuel is ready for the swap and exchange."

Soltinieh says this proposal has been ignored.

It is not clear Tehran can actually boost uranium from its current state of under five percent enrichment to the 20 percent needed for a reactor. Its processing program would need to be adjusted first, and there have been no reports that has been undertaken.

Iranian officials say the process is being overseen by U.N. inspectors.

If Tehran could push the enrichment to 20 percent, scientists say raising it to weapons grade would not be that much more difficult.

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"As of 26 January, 2010, the U.S. has destroyed a 22,322 tons of the original 31,500 tons," said Greg Mahall, chief of Public Affairs for the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency (CMA).

The U.S. arsenal -- which used to include 31,500 tons of chemical weapons such as Sarin, VX and Mustard agents-- is systematically being destroyed at an increased pace, Mahall said.

"It is a tremendous success story. Not only is the U.S doing all it can to meet its international commitments, but more importantly the Chemical Materials Agency is contributing to the national security of the United States in the process. These weapons in the wrong hands can do harm. They are safely and securely storing and destroying them while providing maximum protection to the public and environment," said Carmen Spencer, deputy assistant Secretary of the Army (Elimination of Chemical Weapons).

The Army's Chemical Stockpile Elimination mission, which destroyed more than 3,084 tons of chemical weapons at four facilities during 2009, has been working since the early 90's --- several years before the 1992 drafting of an international Chemical Weapons Convention arms control agreement calling for the destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles and a prohibition on their use and production.

"Production went into a moratorium based on direction from President Nixon in the late 60's," Mahall said.

Article I of the CWC treaty, initially signed in 1993 and now ratified by as many as 188 countries, states in part:

"Each State Party undertakes to destroy chemical weapons it owns or possesses, or that are located in any place under its jurisdiction or control, in accordance with the provisions of this convention."

Recognizing the weapons had become obsolete, the U.S. did not wait for ratification of the CWC Treaty, Mahall said.

"We began destroying our agents at Johnston Atoll [a remote outpost in the central pacific 825 miles southwest of Hawaii] in 1990," said Mahall. "The weapons had a limited tactical use and had been overcome in America's arsenal by other more potent weapons in the nuclear age. The U.S. quit making them, which means stocks on hand sat in storage deteriorating."

The Annual Status Report on the Disposal of Chemical Weapons and Materiel for Fiscal Year 2009 states that $1,548 million was appropriated during the year for chemical agents and munitions destruction.

"CMA remains committed to our storage and destruction mission and remains vigilant to safely completing that mission while protecting the workforce, the public, and the environment," wrote CMA director Conrad F. Whyne in the report.

In addition to the weapons stored on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific, chemical weapons stockpiles were dispersed among eight locations within in the continental U.S. at Army facilities in Anniston, Ala., Pine Bluff, Ark., Tooele, Utah, Umatilla, Ore., Aberdeen, Md., Newport, Ind., Blue Grass, Ky., and Pueblo, Colo.

Destruction of the stockpiles at Blue Grass, Ky., and Pueblo, Colo., now falls under Defense Department management with Army assistance; the remaining sites are currently part of the Army's Chemical Stockpile elimination program.

"All of the nerve agent under CMA destruction has been destroyed with the exception of a small amount of GA (Tabun) in Utah. Comparatively small amounts remain in storage awaiting destruction in Kentucky," said Mahall.

Water and sodium hydroxide-based neutralization methods were used to destroy stockpiles at facilities in Aberdeen, Md., and Newport, Ind. --and incineration technology is employed at other Army locations including Anniston, Umatilla, Tooele, and Pine Bluff, Army officials said.

The stockpiles at Pueblo, Colo., and Blue Grass, Ky., are being destroyed under DoD auspices using water oxidation and neutralization methods; Stockpile destruction at Pueblo, Col., will be finished by 2017 and destruction at Blue Grass, Ky., is slated to be finished by 2021, Spencer said.

Chemical Weapons Incineration

Chemical weapons such as mortars, projectiles or 155mm artillery shells are disassembled and incinerated inside robustly engineered plants adjacent to the storage igloos where the chemical weapons are kept, Mahall said.

"Robotics reverse-assemble these weapons -- unscrewing the nose cone, pulling out the fuse and draining the agent out of the weapon. Then you have two different destruction streams. The hard substances and the liquid agents," said Mahall. "The liquid agents will be stored in a holding tank then sprayed into a furnace called the liquid incinerator. Basically, destruction is a matter of time and temperature. The agents have high, natural BTU quotients and burn quite well. At a temperature of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit agent will be destroyed completely in a matter of one-to-two seconds."

The bullet, rocket or bomb casings -- the hard substances -- are placed on a conveyor belt, put into a metal furnace and burned for at least 15 minutes at temperatures up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure total destruction of whatever agents might be left, Mahall said.

Given the nature and age of the agents involved, safety and environmental concerns are emphasized and placed at a premium. "A tremendous amount of money has gone in meeting the environmental standards and we have exceeded environmental standards. Our safety record is unparalleled," said Spencer.

The areas where the incineration takes place are built for safety with 22-inch thick concrete walls, Mahall said.

"Plus, the plant has a cascading negative air system where air is pulled in so that if a weapon would release gas due to some of sort of structural failure, any vapors would caught up in the cascading air system and kept in the plant," Mahall said. "Also, carbon air filters would decontaminate the plant air in the event that anything does leak out before that air is released outside engineering controls."

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Pyongyang's foreign ministry, reiterating its earlier stance, said it would not return to the six-nation disarmament talks it abandoned last April until the United Nations
sanctions are lifted.

"The dignity of the DPRK (North Korea) will never allow this to happen," the ministry said in a statement.

The North repeated calls for early negotiations on a treaty to formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War, in order to build confidence in the nuclear talks.

The communist state said it "is not opposed to the six-party talks and has no ground whatsoever to delay them".

But it added: "There will be a starting point of confidence-building only if the parties concerned sit at a negotiating table for concluding a peace treaty."

The United States and South Korea have rejected early discussions on a peace treaty, or the lifting of sanctions.

They say the North must first return to the six-party talks -- which group the two Koreas, the US, Russia, China and Japan -- and show it is serious about scrapping its atomic programmes.

Seoul's foreign ministry said that under the UN resolution, sanctions could only be reconsidered when there was progress in denuclearisation.

Pyongyang, however, authorised a visit by a Seoul delegation to discuss ways to revitalise their joint industrial estate at Kaesong just north of the border.

The two-day talks will begin Tuesday, Seoul's unification ministry said.

The two sides had agreed last week on the meeting at Kaesong.

But on Friday, in an angry statement, the North's highest body threatened to cut all dialogue and cooperation unless the South apologises for an alleged contingency plan to handle regime collapse in the North.

The National Defence Commission (NDC), chaired by leader Kim Jong-Il, had also warned of a possible "retaliatory" war against the South over the plan.

On Sunday Pyongyang's state media publicised a military drill attended by Kim, in which the leader watched his troops "shattering the 'enemy camp' to pieces".

Friday's statement, which came hours after the North said it would accept food aid from the South, was prompted by unconfirmed media reports that Seoul had drawn up a plan to administer the North in case of regime collapse, a coup or a popular uprising.

The NDC vowed to stage "a sacred nationwide retaliatory battle to blow up the stronghold of the South Korean authorities" that drew up the plan.

It described the alleged document as a plan to overthrow its socialist system.

"North Korea is now taking a two-track approach," said Dongguk University professor Kim Yong-Hyun.

"The message today indicates North Korea is willing to open talks with South Korea on economic and humanitarian issues," he told AFP.

"It will take a stern attitude about anything which is considered to be undermining the regime's authority and leadership."

The cash-strapped regime has faced tighter sanctions since its nuclear and missile tests last year. Last week it called for the South to resume lucrative tourism projects in the North.

The Kaesong estate, where 40,000 North Koreans work at 110 South Korean factories, is also a valuable source of hard currency.

"There will be no progress on political matters for a while but North Korea will try to gain as much as possible from economic talks with South Korea," Kim said.

But he said the North is expected to resume the six-party talks only when the US pledges economic and political benefits or meets part of its demands.

The Korean conflict -- in which a US-led United Nations force supported the South while China backed the North -- ended only in an armistice, leaving the parties still technically at war.

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The daylight killing came amid an increasingly bitter standoff between Iran and world powers over Tehran's controversial nuclear drive, which the West suspects is masking an atomic weapons programme.

Massoud Ali Mohammadi, a particle physics professor at prestigious Tehran University, died when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle was triggered by remote control as he was getting into his car outside his home in the capitals well-to-do northern suburbs, state media and a senior official said.

"One can see in preliminary investigations signs of evil by the triangle of the Zionist regime, America and their mercenaries in Iran in this terrorist incident," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.

The United States dismissed the allegations out of hand.

"Charges of US involvement are absurd," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington.

Tehran's chief prosecutor also implicated the United States and Israel, saying their intelligence services were likely behind the attack.

"Given the fact that Massoud Ali Mohammadi was a nuclear scientist, the CIA and Mossad services and agents most likely have had a hand in it," Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told the state broadcaster's news service.

Last month, Iran accused the United States of seizing an Iranian scientist while he was on pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, a claim Washington refused to comment on and that Riyadh denied, and an Iranian statement drew parallels.

"On the one hand, US government spy agents kidnap Iranians in third countries and transfer them to America and on the other hand their sellout agents in Iran assassinate a scholarly citizen.

"Intelligence and security bodies will try to identify and arrest the perpetrators of this crime and expose their foreign backers," added the statement, carried by the Fars news agency.

Tehran University's Basij, or voluntary Islamist student militia, said Mohammadi's named had been included on an international blacklist linked to Iran's atomic drive.

"Dr Massoud Ali Mohammadi, whose name was on the list of sanctioned individuals ... was one of the outstanding professors of Tehran University's physics faculty," said the statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

The students were referring to sanctions imposed by the United Nations, United States and European countries on individuals and institutions linked to Iran's nuclear programme.

Bomb attacks are rare in Iran although several security officials and members of the elite Revolutionary Guards have been killed in bombings by rebels in the restive southneastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

A witness told AFP Tuesday's explosion was a "strong blast breaking windows in neighbouring houses and cars."

Iranian authorities have consistently accused the United States and Israel of seeking to foment unrest in Iran, and the two countries have never ruled out a military strike to thwart Iran's controversial nuclear drive.

None of the reports said whether Ali Mohammadi was connected to Iran's nuclear enrichment programme and a colleague described him as non-political.

"He was a prominent full professor but he was not a political figure. He had no political activity," Ali Maghari, who heads the faculty of sciences at Tehran university, told the Mehr news agency.

However, Ali Mohammadi's name appeared on a list of academics backing Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi for the disputed June 12 presidential election, which gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term.

The opposition claims the vote was massively rigged in Ahmadinejad's favour. For the past six months, it has been holding anti-government protests at every opportunity, many of which have been broken up by police who have arrested hundreds of demonstrators.

Iran has been under international pressure to suspend uranium enrichment, the sensitive process which is at the centre of Western fears about its ambitions as it can make nuclear fuel but can also be used to make atom bombs.

Despite three sets of UN Security Council sanctions, Iran has continued to expand its nuclear programme, which it insists is for peaceful purposes only.

Representatives of the six powers dealing with Iran over its nuclear programme -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- are to meet in New York on Sunday to discuss whether to propose further sanctions, a diplomat at the United Nations said.

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