U.S. nuclear bomb 'on seabed off Greenland'

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- A long-lost U.S. nuclear bomb is believed to be lying on the seabed off Greenland near an airbase which the U.S. wants to use for its controversial anti-missile shield.

The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten reported on Sunday that classified documents obtained by a group of former workers at the Thule airbase suggest that one of four hydrogen bombs on a B-52 bomber that crashed there in 1968 was never found.

The Arctic air and radar base was built by the U.S. in 1951-52 and is home to a ballistic missile early-warning radar station.

The crash on January 21, 1968 led to a crisis in relations between the U.S. and NATO ally Denmark, which is responsible for Greenland's foreign, security and defence policy and at the time prohibited nuclear weapons on its territory, including Greenland.

The paper said Denmark was never informed about the lost bomb.

Footage filmed at the site by a U.S. submarine searching for the wreckage of the B-52 in April 1968 contained images of a bomb-like object, the Danish Ritzau news agency reported.

A U.S. State Department document dated August 31, 1968 said all weapons on board the aircraft had been accounted for but did not say whether they had been recovered, Ritzau said.

"We are not able to comment at this stage," Lawrence Butler, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassy in Copenhagen, said.

Senior U.S. State Department officials are scheduled to visit Greenland on August 21 to 24 for talks with Danish and Greenland officials on Thule's role in the planned National Missile Defence (NMD) initiative.

According to Senate testimony by U.S. Defence Secretary William Cohen in July, Washington needs a decision on upgrading the Thule radar next year if the White House gives the go-ahead to deploy NMD by 2005.

Leading politicians in Greenland, which has enjoyed limited self-determination under the Danish crown since 1979, do not want Thule to play any role in the NMD.

Denmark has declined to speak out on the issue apart from saying that the NMD should not go ahead if it breaches the strategic missile treaty between the U.S. and Russia.

Moscow opposes the U.S. missile shield plan and says it does breach the treaty.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Denmark and other NATO allies that their participation in the NMD could upset global strategic stability.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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DefenseLINK - Official Web Site of the U.S. Department of Defense
Internetavisen Jyllands-Posten - Forside
Senate, House Approve Bills Calling for NMD Deployment
Pushing the Limits: The Decision on National Missile Defense
Coalition to Protect Americans Now
Forum for people who stayed at Thule air base, Greenland
National Missile Defense

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