AKIPRESS.COM - President Donald Trump has said he wants the United States to expand its nuclear arsenal, in his first comments on the issue since taking office, BBC reported.

Mr Trump said it would be "wonderful" if no nation had nuclear arms, but otherwise the US must be "top of the pack".

He told Reuters that the US had "fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity".

Critics say the US and Russia already have more weapons than necessary to deter a nuclear attack.

The US has 6,800 nuclear weapons and Russia has 7,000, according to the US nonpartisan Arms Control Association.

Speaking to Reuters in a wide-ranging interview, Mr Trump said: "I am the first one that would like to see everybody - nobody have nukes, but we're never going to fall behind any country even if it's a friendly country, we're never going to fall behind on nuclear power."

"It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we're going to be at the top of the pack."