Obama to push arms control agenda

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama is preparing to advance an ambitious arms control agenda that calls for dramatic cuts in American and Russian arsenals, experts say.

The president's plan also calls for jettisoning the Bush administration's plan for a more advanced nuclear warhead, and the ratification of a global treaty banning underground nuclear tests, The Boston Globe reported Sunday.

Denis McDonough, Obama's deputy national security adviser, told the newspaper the president is still assembling the team to implement his arms control agenda. He said arms control "is a principal priority for the

president, as he talked about during the campaign."

Henry Sokolski, a member of the U.S. Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, said he worries Obama's agenda could increase global nuclear competition.

"This brave new, nuclear world may be anything but peaceful," said Sokolski, an independent analyst who has supported arms-control pacts in other contexts. "As the qualitative and quantitative differences between nuclear weapons states become smaller, rivalries are likely to become much more dangerous."

Obama could also face opposition in his own Cabinet, the newspaper noted.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last fall that building the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead is essential to ensuring that the nation's nuclear defenses remain viable.