NEW YORK, May 29: The Pentagon has asked the US Congress to approve the development of a new weapon that would enable the United States to carry out non-nuclear missile strikes against distant targets within an hour, the New York Times said in a report on Monday.

The proposal has set off a complex debate about whether this programme for strengthening the military’s conventional capacity could increase the risks of accidental nuclear confrontation, the newspaper said.

The Pentagon plan calls for deploying a new non-nuclear warhead atop the submarine-launched Trident II missile that could be used to attack terrorist camps, enemy missile sites, suspected caches of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons and other potentially urgent threats, military officials told the Times.

If fielded, it would be the only non-nuclear weapon designed for rapid strikes against targets thousands of miles away.

Gen. James E. Cartwright, the chief of the United States Strategic Command, told the newspaper the system would enhance the Pentagon’s ability to ‘pre-empt conventionally’ and precisely while limiting the ‘collateral damage’.