18 November 2004	Thursday	05 Shawwal 1425

MOSCOW, Nov 17: Russia is working on new nuclear missile systems that other powers do not have in order to protect itself against future security threats, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

Mr Putin, speaking to armed forces chiefs, said although international terrorism was one of Russia's main security threats the country had also to keep its nuclear defences in sound condition.

"We know that we have only to weaken our attention to such components of our defences as the nuclear-missile shield, and new threats to us could appear," Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.

He said research and successful testing of new nuclear-missile systems technology was being conducted. "I am sure that in the near future weapons will appear ... which other nuclear powers do not and will not possess."

The ITAR-TASS news agency speculated that Putin was referring to the mobile Topol-M missile, which is analogous to the US Minuteman-3 missile and is meant to form the backbone of Russia's future strategic nuclear arsenal.

But leading Russian military analyst Alexander Golts said Putin's remarks were more likely to be an attempt to shore up the country's international standing than an announcement of any developments in its nuclear arsenal.

"It's more or less a tradition that the Russian leadership prefers to speak about our nuclear capacity, because after all it's the last attribute of a superpower," he said.

"Our nuclear armament is the single thing that makes us more or less equal to the United States and it's very important from a political point of view for Mr Putin to keep mentioning it." More than half of Russia's defence budget goes on nuclear programmes, he said.

Mr Putin gave no further detail about what type of weapons he was referring to or what shape new security threats could take. "We will continue to consistently and successively build up the armed forces in general and its nuclear component," he said.

Russia's latest nuclear innovation was a test launch in February of a missile designed to outwit Washington's planned $50 billion missile shield. "It flies as a ballistic missile warhead in space, but when it penetrates the atmosphere it begins flying like a cruise missile," Mr Golts said.

He said it made the American anti-missile plans more or less useless. "And it means that we still think about the United States as a potential adversary," Golts added.

US REACTION: Washington was not threatened by President Vladimir Putin's announcement that Russia intended to remain a major nuclear power by deploying a new weapon in the coming years that other states lack, a State Department spokesman said on Wednesday.

"We do not perceive Russia's nuclear sustainment and modernization activities as threatening, and what they are doing is fully consistent with our mutual obligations under the Moscow Treaty," deputy spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters.

"Our mutual obligations in this area are covered under the Moscow Treaty. Pursuant to that treaty, we have regular consultations" with Moscow, Ereli said. "And based on those regular consultations, we are confident that Russia's plans are not threatening and are consistent with its obligations, and I think are indicative of a new strategic relationship between the United States and Russia that is focused on reducing threats and increasing confidence," he added.

"We have not only conducted tests of the latest nuclear rocket systems," Putin told a meeting of the armed forces' leadership. "I am sure that, in the coming years, we will deploy them." -AFP