The Associated Press
Thursday, Oct. 21, 1999; 6:48 p.m. EDT

ROME –– Italian and Dutch government officials said Thursday that Europe should keep some U.S. nuclear weapons on its soil to guarantee the security of NATO countries and maintain peace in Europe.

Considering the "potential risks that NATO countries face, conventional weapons on their own are not enough to fully deter aggressions," Italian Defense Minister Carlo Scognamiglio said in a briefing to the Senate.

Recently declassified Pentagon papers have revealed the presence of 150 U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe. Half of those were in six NATO countries – Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, according to the article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Despite Scognamiglio's support for maintaining some of the arsenal on Italian soil, Environmental Minister Edo Ronchi demanded the warheads be removed. Italy has no nuclear arsenal of its own, and Italians voted in a 1987 referendum to ban nuclear power.

"The warheads should absolutely be eliminated in all of Europe," Ronchi told the ANSA news agency. "There's no reason to keep them after the end of the Cold War."

Many Italian politicians said they knew about the arsenal, but did not realize it was so large. Experts who studied the Pentagon document said 20 nuclear warheads were at the American base at Aviano, and another 10 were at the Italian base at Ghedi Torri, near the northern city of Brescia.

The article said U.S. nuclear weapons were first deployed in Italy in 1957.

The spokesman for the Dutch foreign affairs ministry, Arjen Lekkerkerker, also advocated keeping the arsenal in Europe.

"In guaranteeing the collective safety of Europe, nuclear possibilities play an important part," Lekkerkerker said.

Details about locations of American nuclear weapons abroad are among the most closely protected Pentagon secrets. Today the only remaining full-time U.S. nuclear deployments outside the United States are in Europe, where bombs are stored for potential use by U.S. Air Force planes based there.

The Pentagon also has U.S.-based submarines, aircraft and missiles armed with nuclear warheads.