Study: World powers risk atomic war

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The world's top military powers are gradually dismantling their stockpiles of nuclear arms, but all are developing new missiles and warheads with smaller yields that could increase the risk of atomic warfare, a Swedish research institute said yesterday.

In its annual report on military forces around the globe, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute also said the rising number of nations with nuclear weapons was raising the risk that such arms could be used.

"The concern is that countries are starting to see these weapons as usable, whereas during the Cold War, they were seen as a deterrent," said Ian Anthony, a nuclear expert at the institute.

The institute for the first time counted North Korea among the world's nuclear countries, because of its underground test explosion of an atomic device in October. While saying it remains unclear whether the communist country has developed a deliverable nuclear weapon, the institute said North Korea could have produced about six nuclear bombs, based on its stockpiles of plutonium.

Iran is a potential member of the nuclear club if it decides to turn its uranium-enrichment program to military use, Anthony said - something the United States estimated and its allies suspected was the Tehran regime's plan, but that Iranian leaders deny.

"Iran could appear on this list, but at the earliest five years from now," he said.

The United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, Pakistan and India are known to have nuclear weapons, while Israel is thought by most experts to have them.

The report estimated that those nations had 11,530 warheads available for delivery by missile or aircraft at the start of 2007, with Russia and the United States accounting for more than 90 percent - 5,614 in Russia and 5,045 in the United States.

Both countries are reducing their stockpiles as part of bilateral treaties but are developing new weapons as they modernize their forces. Britain, France and China also plan to deploy new nuclear weapons, the institute said.

India, Pakistan and Israel each have dozens of warheads, but their stockpiles are believed to be only partly deployed, the institute said.

The United States remained the world's biggest military spender last year, devoting about $529 billion to its military forces, the report said, while China overtook Japan as Asia's top arms spender.