MOSCOW (AP) - The U.S. ambassador said Tuesday both the U.S. and Russian leaders want a new nuclear arms reduction agreement finished and ready for signing at their May summit, but ``complex'' issues still stand in the way.
``Both presidents have made very clear to their ministers and their bureaucracies that they want this agreement finished,'' Ambassador Alexander
Vershbow said at a Moscow news conference.
``As a senior chinovnik (bureaucrat), I understand my marching orders,'' he said.
Bush has said he is prepared to reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal to 1,700 to 2,200 warheads from the current 6,000 each country is allowed under the START I treaty. Putin has said Moscow would be willing to reduce to 1,500 warheads.
Vershbow said negotiators had made ``tremendous progress'' in formulating new ways of monitoring and verifying weapons cuts. The main difference remaining
is ``how to implement the reduction,'' Vershbow said, alluding to Russia's objection to the Pentagon's plan to store warheads taken out of active service rather than to destroy them.
Gary Samore, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said the issue had never entered into U.S.-Russian strategic arms talks before.
``The Russian argument is that we didn't need to deal with it before because
we still had so many weapons left that a couple of thousand in reserve didn't make much of a difference,'' Samore said.
``Now, as the two sides are getting down to smaller levels and as the United
States is proceeding with missile defense, it becomes more important that one side or the other not have a breakout capability and not be able to suddenly
move ahead and deploy 4,000 extra warheads.''
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov discussed the arms cuts in Moscow on Monday, and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov will travel to Washington later this week for what officials have called potentially decisive talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell and President Bush.
On another advance that had been expected by the summit, however, the lifting of the Jackson-Vanik amendment may not occur, Vershbow said. The Cold War-era legislation ties Moscow's trade privileges to its policies on Jewish emigration - which is no longer an issue - and its trading practices, which are.
Vershbow said that Russia's monthlong ban on U.S. poultry imports earlier this year and its sluggish resumption of import licensing had hurt Moscow's chances to have Jackson-Vanik put to rest. Moscow said the ban was prompted by health concerns, while Washington said the motivation was protectionism.
``The issue that is connected with Jackson-Vanik is normal trade relations, and unfortunately the conduct of the Russian side in the whole dispute has raised serious concerns in both houses of Congress,'' Vershbow said.