US: The US and Russia have reached a last-minute agreement saving a programme to secure or destroy Soviet nuclear warheads, chemical weapons and killer germs, US officials say, breaking a long logjam and averting a rupture weeks before President Bush travels to St Petersburg.
The programme, a multibillion-dollar effort designed to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists or rogue states, was set to expire on Friday amid a stubborn disagreement over legal provisions. But a new deal will extend the programme for seven years and effectively take the issue off the table for Mr Bush's trip.
Although overshadowed by disputes with Iran and North Korea, the Co-operative Threat Reduction programme with Russia represents the most expansive disarmament effort in the world, and the prospect that it could be halted deeply worried arms-control specialists. The programme, which began 14 years ago after the cold war ended, has deactivated thousands of warheads, missiles and bombers and made progress toward securing biological and chemical weapons.
But the work has gone more slowly than hoped and Russia still maintains thousands of additional ageing nuclear warheads as well as vast stockpiles of other weapons that specialists fear are vulnerable to theft or sale on the black market.
"The extension of the umbrella agreement is critical," said Raphael Della Ratta, a weapons specialist at the Russian American Nuclear Security Advisory Council. Without it, "nuclear weapons delivery systems would not be dismantled, chemical weapons would remain unsecured and undestroyed, and biological pathogens would remain unsecured as well."
At the same time, he and other experts have complained that the Bush administration has not shown sufficient urgency about eliminating Russian arms. "We are in a race against time to secure these materials before they're lost, stolen or get into the wrong hands," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.
The extension had been held up for years mainly by a dispute over liability. Under the original agreement, Russia was responsible for any mishaps, even accidents or negligence, by US contractors. Russia has balked at that provision. The renewal keeps the original language for current projects, but will address Russian concerns for future projects. It does not affect a separate plutonium-disposal programme announced in 1998 but never started.
A collapse of the Co-operative Threat Reduction programme would have marred Mr Bush's visit to St Petersburg next month for the G8 summit. The meeting will be the group's first held by Russia, which is eager to use the occasion to showcase its re-emergence on the world stage as a major power.
The Co-operative Threat Reduction agreement was reached in 1992 and was renewed in 1999. Since then, it has deactivated or destroyed 6,828 nuclear warheads, 612 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), 885 nuclear air-to-surface missiles, 577 submarine-launched missiles, 155 bombers and 29 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, among others.
But it still has much to do. About half of the nuclear warheads, ICBMs, ICBM silos, submarine-launched missiles and nuclear submarines targeted by the programme have yet to be eliminated, according to the agency. A chemical-weapons destruction facility is more than 60 per cent unfinished and the US government accountability office reported that it may not open by 2009.