Russia-U.S. headway on arms

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, FEB. 2. Russia may be prepared to link changes in the U.S.-Russian Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty to deep cuts in the nuclear arsenals of the two countries. Russia's Foreign Minister, Mr. Igor Ivanov, hinted at such a linkage after talks between the Russian acting President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, and the visiting U.S. Secretary of State, Ms. Madeleine Albright, in the Kremlin today.

Mr. Ivanov said the two sides were aiming at agreements that would allow to ``reserve intact the fundamental provisions of the ABM treaty and at the same time push for deep cuts in the nuclear arsenals of the two countries.''

Analysts suggested that Moscow could agree to modify the ABM treaty in exchange for Washington's consent to slash the nuclear stocks to 1,500 missiles, rather than the 2,000-2,500 level that the U.S. negotiators have so far insisted upon. Mr. Putin also assured Ms. Albright that Russia would ratify the START II nuclear arms reduction treaty, which limits the Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals to 3,000-3,500 missiles each. Russia is strongly opposed to U.S. proposals to amend the 1972 ABM treaty to enable Washington to deploy a national anti-missile defence system. Moscow says the system would undermine the whole architecture of international arms control. The meeting was extended from one to three hours, as the sides attempted to bridge their positions on arms control and Chechnya.

After the talks both sides said Moscow had refused to soften its stand on the four-month-old military operation in breakaway Chechnya. The NTV television quoted a high-placed Kremlin source as saying that Mr. Putin had reaffirmed his resolve to crush Chechen rebels.

``Washington should now be absolutely clear that it must not expect any concessions on Chechnya,'' the Kremlin source told NTV. ``They can either take it or leave it.''

The U.S. Secretary of State also confirmed the lack of headway on Chechnya. ``We clearly continue to have disagreements'' concerning the breakaway republic, Ms. Albright said after the meeting.

The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr. Ivanov, said the main purpose of the talks was to prevent bilateral relations from cooling and stressed that the discussions overall were positive.

``The conversation was very candid, friendly and constructive despite certain disagreements between the sides,'' Mr. Ivanov told reporters after the talks.

Opening the talks with Ms. Albright, Russia's acting President said Russian-American relations had ``a global nature'' and Russia viewed the United States as ``its main partner on the whole range of issues.''

During her three-day trip to Moscow Ms. Albright also co-chaired the first multilateral peace talks on West Asia in more than three years. The meeting resulted in Israeli and Arab leaders agreeing to resume talks on West Asian cooperation in the framework of four working groups on economic cooperation, water, refugees and the environment. The groups will meet in four locations in April and May.

`Rebels quit Grozny'

Reuters reports:

Russian forces today prepared to strike further into the Chechen capital Grozny after rebels fighting Moscow's troops said they had pulled out of the battered city.

Russia reacted cautiously to the rebel announcement of a withdrawal from the city where street-to-street skirmishes have been fought for a month, further reducing the city to a wasteland of smoking ruins and shattered concrete blocks.

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