Washington - The US Senate's rejection of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty has now become an issue in next year's presidential election, as Democrats accuse the Republicans of flouting the will of the American electorate as well as dismaying world opinion, Joe Carroll reports.
A clearly angry President Clinton, who signed the treaty in 1996, said: "Never before has a serious treaty involving nuclear weapons been handled in such a reckless and partisan way." He said that the treaty was "well worth fighting for and I assure you the fight is far from over".
Political observers say, however, that the treaty is dead for the rest of the President's term of office, which ends in January 2001. The Vice-President, Mr Al Gore, who is campaigning for the Democratic nomination, called the vote "an act of almost breath-taking irresponsibility" and pledged that his "very first act" if elected president would be to resubmit the treaty to the Senate for ratification.