WASHINGTON - The Obama administration's classified review of nuclear weapons policy will for the first time make thwarting nuclear-armed terrorists a central aim of American strategic nuclear planning, according to senior Pentagon officials.

When completed next year, the Nuclear Posture Review will order the entire government to focus on countering nuclear terrorists - whether armed with rudimentary bombs, stolen warheads or devices surreptitiously supplied by a hostile state - as a task equal to the traditional mission of deterring a strike by major powers or emerging nuclear adversaries.