8 countries with nuclear arms have 19,000 warheads

The eight countries that possess nuclear weapons -- China, India, Israel, France, Pakistan, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. -- held some 19,000 nuclear warheads, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in its annual yearbook released Monday.

Russia had the most warheads with 10,000, followed by the U.S. with 8,000, France 300, China 240 and the U.K. 225.

The number of active nuclear warheads was 4,400, with 2,000 kept in a state of high operational alert. The U.S., Russia, China, France and the U.K. are enhancing their nuclear arms systems and expected to remain as permanent nuclear weapons holders.

Military expenses rose just 0.3 percent from 2010 to 740 billion dollars last year due to the global financial crisis, but countries possessing nuclear weapons are continuing to modernize nuclear capacity, the institute said.

The U.S. reduced the number of nuclear warheads to 8,000 in January this year from 8,500 a year earlier. Russia went from 11,000 to 10,000 warheads over the same period.

India and Pakistan are known to have steadily produced ballistic missiles and nuclear fissile materials for military use. India possessed 80 to 100 nuclear warheads, Pakistan 90 to 110, and Israel 80.

North Korea recently proclaimed itself a nuclear state but no official data supports the claim that Pyongyang has nuclear weapons that are operational, the institute said. As of last year, the North is estimated to have separated 30 kilograms of plutonium that can be used to manufacture as many as eight nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang has an uranium enrichment program but it is unclear if it has produced high-enrichment uranium, the think tank said, adding the North is broadly involved in the transfer of nuclear weapons and missile technologies to other countries, threatening global efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

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