MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the agreement reached Monday between U.S. and Russian negotiators on landmark cuts in nuclear weapons that he and U.S. President George W. Bush will sign at a summit next week.
"We are satisfied with the joint work," Putin said shortly after he was informed that the agreement was finalized. "Without the interested, active position of the American administration and the attention of President Bush, it would have been difficult to reach such agreements."
Bush announced the deal in Washington on Monday, immediately after talks in Moscow between U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov.
"The treaty will liquidate the legacy of the Cold War," Bush said.
The arms control agreement would require each country to cut its nuclear arsenal to 1,700 to 2,200 warheads from the 6,000 now allowed by the START-I treaty. Bush and Putin agreed to those levels last fall and negotiators have been trying to work out a formal document codifying them ever since in time for the May 23-26 summit.
One sticking point had been Russia's objections to U.S. plans for storing some of the nuclear weapons rather than destroying them. Senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some of the arms will be stored and others destroyed under the accord.
In a victory for Putin, the president dropped his insistence on an informal agreement and will sign a treaty. That means the deal must be approved by the U.S. Senate, which is controlled by rival Democrats - a step Bush had hoped to avoid. The Russian parliament largely supports Putin.
Putin had no comment on details of the accord.
Earlier Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry had issued a statement saying that as a result of Monday's talks "it was possible to bring the sides closer in a cardinal way," without elaborating.
At the start of talks, Mamedov had called them "difficult," saying they were complicated by changes in U.S. nuclear and other military policies in recent months.
"We needed to conduct an analysis of our plans taking into account new moments in the American side's approach," he said in remarks shown on ORT television.
Mamedov said the agreement includes a clause allowing either party to pull out "in case of a threat to national interests." He said the two delegations were discussing specifics of the agreement Monday as well as overall strategic stability issues.