Putin, Bush to Agree on Arms Cuts in Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President George W. Bush will flesh out a deal on massive nuclear arms cuts during their planned spring summit in Moscow, Russia's defense minister has said.

However, the exact content of the proposed agreement was not yet entirely clear, the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Sergei Ivanov, a close Putin ally, as saying late Monday.

"The question is what will be in this agreement. We (Russians) are prepared to go for massive strategic nuclear arms cuts," Ivanov said.

"Let us proceed from the assumption that the US side thinks along the same lines," he added.

Bush has offered to cut the US strategic nuclear arsenal from 6,000 warheads to as low as 1,700 warheads. Russia also has said it will slash its arsenal to 1,500 warheads.

The two sides have been at odds over a US plan to keep decommissioned warheads in reserve in case conditions change, and Russia's insistence that the cuts be formalized in a legally binding document.

But US Secretary of State Colin Powell indicated earlier this month that Washington could agree to Moscow's demand that nuclear warhead cuts be enshrined in a formal treaty.

Russia and the United States agreed to set up working groups on a number of issues, including strategic nuclear arms cuts, to work toward agreements that could be signed when Bush and Putin meet in Moscow in May or June.

(China Daily February 26, 2002)