WASHINGTON, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The United States plans to speed up the dismantling of old, retired nuclear warheads in coming years to counter any impression that the country would start a new arms race, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

    U.S. lawmakers have been pressuring the Geprge W. Bush administration to step up the pace of dismantling the estimated 4,000 to 6,000 non-operational warheads in the stockpile, according to the report.

    The exact numbers are classified, but congressional and administration sources say that in recent years fewer than 100 warheads have been taken apart annually.

    "Dismantlements are a key element of our strategy to ensure that stockpile and infrastructure transformation is not misperceived by other nations as 'restarting the arms race,' " the U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell told a congressional committee last week.

    "We must dismantle at a much greater rate than we have in the last few years, " he said.

    Sell declared that the National Nuclear Security Administration was set to "increase by 50 percent the number of nuclear warheads it dismantles next year." Enditem