Presidents Bill Clinton and Vladimir Putin last night clashed over hotly contested US plans for a national missile shield, with the new Russian leader using his first summit with the United States to tell the President that his scheme amounted to a cure worse than the disease it was designed to treat.
The last US-Russian summit of the Clinton years and the first of the Putin era saw the two sides agreeing that global strategic stability in the 21st century faced a fresh threat from so-called rogue states and the proliferation of ballistic missile technology. But they differed profoundly over how to tackle the dangers.
The presidents pushed through deals on a multi-billion-dollar programme to dispose of tens of tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium and on an ambitious joint early-warning system aimed at countering the risk of accidental launches of nuclear missiles. But on the crucial issue of the summit, they agreed to disagree.
"We have agreed to a statement of principles . . . that makes clear that there is an emerging ballistic missile threat that must be addressed," Mr Clinton said as the summit concluded in the Kremlin.
Mr Putin said the row over National Missile Defence (NMD) was "one of the most difficult issues to solve. There are a lot of problems there."
The missile shield issue represents the first big clash over arms control between Washington and Moscow for years, recalling the confrontation of the Cold War.
Mr Putin said there was a "commonality" or "starting point" between them, the possibility of new threats. But he added: "We're against having a cure which is worse than the disease."
The $60 billion NMD programme, dubbed "son of Star Wars", has upset Washington's NATO allies and brought strong criticism last week from the German Chancellor, Dr Gerhard Schroder. It dominated the Moscow summit yesterday whose central result was the joint "statement of principles on strategic stability".
To proceed with the NMD, Washington needs to persuade Russia to amend the anti-ballistic missiles treaty signed by Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev in 1972 or ditch the treaty altogether.
The Putin concessions were to admit that there was indeed a risk posed by states such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq, and to agree to keep negotiating, with experts from both countries commissioned to draft a report.
Both sides agreed that "the international community is facing a mounting menace of the proliferation of mass destruction weaponry and its delivery means." They agreed that problems relating to the new nuclear threat must be solved on the basis of co-operation. Mr Putin seems to be winning the battle for public opinion at home and in Europe by appearing flexible on arms control generally while insisting there can be no amendments to the ABM treaty.
"The Russian side cannot but voice its satisfaction with the spirit, the quality, and the results of the talks," said Mr Putin.
Despite the enormous gulf between them, the presidents were full of praise for each other. Mr Putin referred to the US leader as a "comfortable and pleasant partner", while Mr Clinton said the Russian President was "fully capable of building a prosperous, strong Russia while preserving freedom and pluralism and the rule of law".
He criticised Russia's war in Chechnya, however, denouncing Mr Putin's policy there as one which "ultimately can't succeed".
Mr Putin's resistance to the key American summit aims at the meeting marked a radical departure from the era of Mr Boris Yeltsin, whose summits rarely featured any big rows with the US.