Obama to limit when U.S. uses nuclear weapons: report

Obama made the commitment in an interview with the New York Times on the eve of unveiling his administration's long-delayed Nuclear Posture Review.

He said countries that have violated or renounced the NPT, such as Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, would be considered "outliers," and not included in his promise.

The announcement eliminates the calculated ambiguity in U.S. nuclear posture since the beginning of the Cold War, and for the first time promised explicitly not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the NPT, even if they attack the United States with biological or chemical weapons, or with crippling cyber warfare.

However, the paper quoted administration officials as saying the new strategy would still leave open the possibility of reconsidering the use of nuclear retaliation against biological attack, should such threat escalates to the level that makes the United States vulnerable to a crippling attack, Kazinform cites Xinhuanet.

See www.xinhuanet.com