Roughly 2,000 of the new warheads would be deployed, one-fifth of Cold War levels. But the US government insists that it has enough technical know-how to avoid having to scrap its moratorium on nuclear weapons tests.

"Today's stockpile is safe and reliable, and does not require testing," argued John Harvey, director of policy planning at the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Nevertheless, he told a seminar at the New America Foundation, the Cold War-era warheads now deployed could pose a risk in decades to come as they age.

"The RRW program is simply accomplishing the same goals as life extension," Harvey said, referring to the decade-old policy of refurbishing older warheads without making or testing new ones.

"It's not seeking to come out with whole new generations of nuclear weapons," he said. "The idea here is to provide the same military capabilities as the one it replaces."

Critics in Congress, especially in the Democratic party, argue that the US government risks alarming other nuclear powers like Russia and China with what they say is an unnecessary revamp.

Steven Monblatt, co-executive director of the British American Security Information Council, said the RRW plan looks to other countries "like a build-up" of nuclear weapons by the United States.

"The US has been at best diffident in the non-proliferation arena," he told the seminar, while other critics noted that the United States has refused to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty despite its own moratorium.

But Harvey said that in an age of "rogue states," the United States needs to have reliable warhead capacity to cover its global security responsibilities to allies in Europe and Asia.

The United States had notified allies and countries like Russia and China of its warhead intentions, "and we have received a very mild reaction from governments," he added.

Russia is already seething over US plans to expand its missile shield into Europe, and last month said it had successfully tested a new ballistic missile bristling with multiple warheads.

In March, the US government selected the design of the next-generation warheads based on work submitted by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Harvey said the winning design came closest to earlier warhead developments, and so had the most chance of working without requiring new underground or atmospheric tests.

The RRW has now entered a new development phase and cost estimates are being calculated. After congressional approval, the new warheads would be produced under the direction of the US Navy.

earlier related report
With implicit NATO backing, US to press missile shield in Europe
Brussels (AFP) June 14 - With an effective NATO endorsement, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday the United States intends to expand a US missile shield in Europe despite vehement Russian opposition.

Gates told his Russian counterpart at a NATO-Russia meeting here that the United States wants to work with Moscow on a proposed US-Russian radar in Azerbaijan but not as a substitute for a US radar in the Czech Republic.

"I was very explicit in the meeting that we saw the Azeri radar as an additional capability, that we intended to proceed with the radar, the X-band radar in the Czech republic," he told reporters.

Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was quoted by the Russian news agency Interfax as warning the ministers that the deployment of a US radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland would be an "unfriendly step."

"We see such a decision as a step aimed at destroying the existing security system, creating new dividing lines on the European continent," he was quoted as saying.

But a senior US official said Serdyukov did not repeat recent Russian threats to target Europe and did not place conditions on a counter-proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin for a joint US-Russian radar in Gabala, Azerbaijan.

"Mr Serdyukov spoke before I did, and did not speak again during the session," Gates said.

Gates said no NATO ally voiced opposition to the US missile defense plans at the meeting with the Russians or in an earlier all-NATO meeting.

"There obviously is interest in trying to encourage the Russians to participate with us to make the system complimentary to NATO's shorter range-missile defenses and for transparence," he said.

"But as I said there was no criticism from any of those who spoke and quite a number of the ministers did speak," he said.

Asked about recent Russian threats, Gates said: "One theme of several of the representatives of the alliance during the meeting was the need to modulate rhetoric and for us to deal on a businesslike basis with one another."

On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Washington to freeze work with Poland and the Czech Republic on its missile shield, suggesting that continued talks might worsen the Iranian nuclear stand-off.

NATO defence ministers agreed to assess the political and military implications of the US missile defence plan with an eye to what NATO would have to do to defend areas in southern Europe not under its umbrella.

The assessment is to be completed by February 2008 ahead of a NATO summit in Bucharest to inform deliberations on fielding a theatre missile defence system that could be "bolted on" to the US system, NATO officials said.

The study was "a recognition that the US discussion and proposals with Poland and the Czech Republic are A: a fact. B: that they are moving forward, and C: that NATO work ... on missile defence needs to take that into account," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai.

"NATO will now move forward to assess the political and military implications of the US missile system proposals," he said.

NATO ministers then met separately with Serdyukov in what one NATO diplomat described as a "calm and cold" session.

"Each side simply restated its own arguments. There were no harsh words, but then there was no progress either," the diplomat said.

The US official described it as a "very workmanlike session."

"He made no threats today. There were no linkages with regard to Gabala. Allies were very welcoming of Russia's interest in cooperating on missile defense," the official said.

Washington announced in January that it wants to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic linked to an early warning system, probably in the Caucasus, all to be operational by 2013.

The shield is aimed at countering attacks from nations that Washington regards as "rogue states" such as Iran.

The problem for NATO is that four members -- Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Turkey -- are only partly covered or left out of the umbrella all together, undermining the principle of "indivisibility of allied security".

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