Obama to unveil nuclear arms strategy on Tuesday

The much-anticipated Nuclear Posture Review is required by Congress from every U.S. administration, but Obama set expectations high after he vowed to end "Cold War thinking" and won the Nobel Peace Prize in part for his vision of a nuclear-free world.

Obama said last month the new plan, which comes after months of deliberations, would "reduce the number and role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy, even as we maintain a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent."

It will also set the stage for Obama to sign a landmark arms-control treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague on Thursday and host a global nuclear security summit in Washington next week.

Obama faces the challenge of lending credibility to his arms control agenda while not alarming allies under the U.S. defence umbrella or limiting room to manoeuvre in dealing with emerging nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea.

"The president will unveil the nuclear posture review that he and others have been working on for quite some time," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on Monday.

"Nuclear security is one of the issues that the president is most focussed on in foreign policy," he said. But he gave no details on the contents of the review.

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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