Observers say that along with the current spike in tensions between India and Pakistan, the incoming president will have to deal with the expiration of a key arms reduction pact with the Russians next year along with the budding nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran.

"It is immensely sobering when you are actually confronted with all the responsibility related to nuclear weapons," Matthew Bunn, a former White House nuclear weapons adviser now at Harvard, told the Baltimore Sun.

The Sun said Sunday that Obama, who has been getting regular intelligence briefings since his election this month, will take over the "football," the codes that authenticate a nuclear launch order, as soon as he is sworn in on Jan. 20.