"Some countries have missiles with nuclear warheads, not one or two. But (they tell us) we can't have them. This, I cannot accept," he told his ruling AKP members in the eastern city of Sivas.

"There is no developed nation in the world that doesn't have them," Erdogan said.

He also referred to one of his visits to a former leader who sought to make more nuclear missiles, as many as the U.S. and Russia.

"I'm not going to reveal the name [of the leader]," he said, adding that the leader was then a president, Hurriyet daily said in a report.

"That leader said, we have about 7,500 nuclear warheads. Russia and the U.S. have about 12,000-15,000 missiles. We will build more as well. They will compete for building more nuclear warheads," Erdogan said quoting a former president, whose name he did not disclose.

Turkey signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1980, and has also signed the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which bans all nuclear detonations for any purpose.

Reporter’s code: 50101