MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin stood firm Monday against American determination to abandon the landmark 1972 treaty banning national missile defenses.And while Putin expressed hope for a new deal on nuclear arms cuts, his government made clear that it expects detailed, potentially lengthy negotiations, which President Bush is determined to avoid.
In remarks to reporters before meeting with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Putin said Russia has not changed its view that the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty should be preserved, even if amended.(Read photo caption below)
``You know our attitude toward the ABM treaty of 1972,'' he said, speaking in Russian. ``For us, it's unconditionally linked with both the START I and START II treaties. I would like to underline that.''
He was referring to strategic arms reduction agreements of the 1990s, the second of which has yet to be implemented.
In Russia's view, abandoning the ABM treaty would mean the end of the nuclear arms treaties, and that in turn would undermine international security. Bush's view is that the treaty is no longer relevant and that, while it is linked to the issue of offensive nuclear weapons, setting it aside to give Washington a free hand on missile defense would not lessen the value of Russia's nuclear force.
At their meeting last month in Italy, Bush and Putin agreed to pursue the issues of both offensive and defensive weaponry, and they ordered aides to work out the details.
Rumsfeld held a daylong series of meetings here with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Ivanov, starting with a one-on-one session that lasted two hours and ending with a dinner at Rumsfeld's hotel. In between, the Pentagon chief met with Putin for more than an hour and later fielded questions from Russian academics at the office of the ITAR-Tass news agency.
The officials' talks illuminated differences in fashioning a new U.S.-Russian security relationship.
Rumsfeld said the chief challenge for both sides is to ``shed that baggage'' of Cold War thinking.
``I think I have a much better understanding,'' after Monday's talks, ``of how difficult it is to go from a hostile relationship for 40 or 50 years to a totally different circumstance'' in which neither Russia nor the United States needs to fear the other or believe that treaties must govern their relationship.
``To the extent that suspicion - even misplaced - persists, then we ought to be able to find ways to demystify that and reduce those suspicions,'' he said, implying that the Russians would not oppose Bush's missile defense plan if they accepted the U.S. assertion that it is not designed to harm Russia.
Putin urged the Bush administration to provide more details.
``We would like to get military and technical parameters of the proposals which have been formulated by your department,'' he said to Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld reiterated that he cannot be more specific about the plan because its precise features are yet to be determined by research and testing.
The Russians also seemed bothered by Rumsfeld's refusal to say exactly what level of nuclear weapons Bush wants to keep. Rumsfeld said he would make a recommendation to Bush in late September or early October.
``For us it is important to hear answers'' to the question of how low Bush wants to go, when the American reductions would be implemented and what kind of measures would be taken to verify the cuts, Putin said.
Bush and Putin are to meet in October and again in November.
Ivanov was more explicit in saying his government wants to stick to the ABM treaty and that whatever approach the two countries take to arms control it should place limits on both offensive and defensive weaponry.
The Bush administration wants no limits on its effort to develop missile defenses.
Ivanov also appeared to dash the Bush administration's hopes that a deal could be struck relatively quickly, describing the relationship between offensive and defensive forces as ``very, very complicated.''
``I don't see any possible way that we could take something that complicated and do it only in a couple of months,'' he said.
For his part, Rumsfeld said that although no agreements were reached in Moscow, progress was made.
``Each side is, I believe, gaining a somewhat better perspective as to the thinking and the concerns and the hopes and expectations of the other,'' he said.
Rumsfeld repeatedly described the anticipated talks on nuclear force reductions as consultations, whereas the Russians referred to negotiations. Asked pointedly by a reporter whether the Bush administration was willing to negotiate a detailed agreement on force cuts, Rumsfeld replied, ``That's an open question.''
PHOTO CAPTION:
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, right, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov smile as they walk for negotiations in Moscow, Monday, Aug. 13, 2001. After their meeting Monday Ivanov reiterated his nation's opposition to scrapping the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty that stands in the way of President Bush's plan for building a national missile defense. (AP Photo/ Ivan Sekretarev, Pool)