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MOSCOW : Talks between Moscow and Washington to replace a key nuclear disarmament treaty that expires next month have hit a snag over proposed restrictions on Russian missiles, a newspaper said Thursday.
The dispute threatens to derail high-stakes talks on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which US President Barack Obama's administration hopes to replace before it expires on December 5.
The Kommersant daily, citing an expert familiar with the START talks, said Washington was seeking to keep a provision from the original treaty for monitoring Russia's arsenal of mobile ground-based missiles.
"They are offering to keep and even strengthen control over our mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) such as the Topol," the expert was quoted as saying by Kommersant.
Russia is against the proposal since the United States currently does not have its own mobile ground-based ICBMs and it is therefore of "unilateral character," he said.
The maximum number of "carriers" capable of delivering nuclear warheads remains another sticking point, the newspaper reported.
"In their package, the Americans stipulated a new ceiling for warhead carriers that we don't quite agree with," the expert told Kommersant, referring to proposals presented to Moscow last month by US National Security Adviser James Jones.
Besides ground-based ICBMs, the term "carriers" also encompasses submarine-launched missiles and heavy bombers.
US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS news agency earlier this week that Washington was "disappointed" with Russia's answer to Jones' proposals.
But in a sign that both nations were still keen to reach a deal, Russian and US diplomats have already started looking for a venue where the two countries could sign the new agreement, Kommersant said.
START, a landmark treaty seen as a cornerstone of Cold War-era strategic arms control, led to steep cuts in the US and Russian nuclear arsenals.
On Monday, the two countries resumed what they said would be the last round of their marathon talks in Geneva.
- AFP /ls
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