U.S and Russia debate nuclear arms

MOSCOW ­ U.S. and Russian negotiators worked yesterday to prepare an agreement on nuclear arms cuts before next month's summit, but two Russian arms control experts spoke out against the deal, saying it would require bowing to American demands.

U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton and a group of U.S. negotiators met Monday and yesterday with Russian counterparts led by Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov ­ the latest in a series of arms control consultations in recent months.

"The relationship between the United States and Russia has fundamentally changed. And I think that the summit will reflect that change in relationship regardless of what documents we have to sign," Bolton told Associated Press Television News yesterday.

"Nonetheless, we are working as hard as we can to show as much of that progress in the agreement form as we can," he said.

President Bush has promised to cut the U.S. arsenal to 1,700 to 2,200 strategic nuclear warheads, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia could go even lower, to 1,500 warheads from the current 6,000 that each country is allowed under the 1991 START I treaty.

Bush initially favored an informal deal but later acceded to Putin's push to formalize the cuts in a legally binding agreement. However, talks have been thorny because of Moscow's objection to the Pentagon's decision to stockpile decommissioned nuclear weapons rather than destroy them.