MOSCOW, March 11: Moscow and Beijing demanded clarification from Washington on Monday about reports that the US military had been asked to prepare contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against Russia.

In Beijing a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said China was deeply shocked over the leaked US defence review listing it as a potential target of US nuclear strikes.

The spokesman highlighted an agreement between China and the United States that the two nations would not target each other with nuclear weapons.

“Like many other countries, China is deeply shocked by this report,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

“The US side bears the responsibility to make an explanation on this matter.

“China is a peace-loving country and poses no threat to any other nation.”

The comments came after the Los Angeles Times said on Saturday it had obtained a classified Pentagon report revealing the military had been asked to draft plans to use nuclear weapons against China, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Russia and Syria.

The Pentagon report detailed three scenarios about when the weapons could be used: against targets able to withstand non-nuclear attacks; in retaliation for an attack with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons; and “in the event of surprising military developments”.

The report said one of the new contingencies in which US nuclear weapons might be used was a military confrontation between China and Taiwan.

Russia also reacted with wariness to the US report and demanded clarification from a senior level in Washington.

“If it turns out to be true, this can only provoke regret and concern,” Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was quoted as saying by Interfax.

“We hope ... there will be a statement at a higher level offering clarification and reassuring the international community,” Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said.

“And this concern will be not only in Russia but among the entire international community.”

The latest spat between Moscow and Washington flared ahead of a summit in May between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart George W. Bush that was announced by the Kremlin on Monday.

The leaders are hoping to sign a nuclear arms reduction deal during the May 23 to 26 summit in Moscow, it said. Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko warned however that the reports of US nuclear targeting “cannot leave Moscow indifferent.”

“We have to see to what point this information corresponds to reality. If it does, how can you reconcile it with declarations of the United States that it no longer considers Russia as an enemy?” he told journalists.

Former prime minister Yevgeny Primakov was less diplomatic, saying he was “revolted” by the report that there was “a list of countries that could be targeted” by nuclear weapons.

“This goes beyond what we have previously known,” said the former premier, now president of the Russian chamber of commerce and industry, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

A commentator in the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Lydia Andrusenko, denounced the “selfishness and malice” of the United States and, noting other areas of discord such as Washington’s withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and tariffs on US steel imports, warned that “the much-vaunted Russia-US friendship is falling apart.”

CHENEY: US Vice President Dick Cheney tried on Monday to ease international concern, saying the United States was not targeting its nuclear weapons as a matter of course at any particular nation.