February 14, 2007	Wednesday	Muharram 25, 1428

GENEVA, Feb 13: The United States clashed with China and Russia during a disarmament debate on Tuesday over how to prevent an arms race in outer space, as Washington criticized Beijing for its recent test of an anti-satellite missile.

Russia and China, in turn, condemned the “one state” that refuses to consider a treaty banning space weapons -- a reference to the US.

The meeting of the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament came a month after China launched a warhead from a ballistic missile to destroy one of its old weather satellites -- a test that was widely criticized as a provocative display of the Asian country's growing military capability.

Despite the test, Beijing joined Moscow on Tuesday in renewing their five-year-old initiative to establish an international accord against weapons deployment in outer space. They maintain that Washington's developing anti-missile systems could set off a new arms race.

“The notion that introducing weapons and the threat of force into outer space could be a sustainable way of securing strategic advantage and legitimate defence objectives is fundamentally flawed,” they said in an 18-page working paper distributed to delegations.

China and Russia said attempts to have global military dominance by the use of space “are counterproductive and jeopardise the security of all humanity.”

One country's bid to have “impregnable defences” is dangerous because it could “lead to new instruments of war and to an arms race,” the paper said.

US Ambassador Christina Rocca sought to correct what she said were misconceptions about the US space policy. She said Washington was committed to ensuring the use of space for peaceful purposes, but insisted that it would pursue programmes to ensure that its satellites and other spacecraft were protected.

“Put simply, these assets are vital to our national security, including our economic interests, and must be defended,” Rocca told delegations.

The Russian and Chinese proposal has been stymied by the United States since they introduced it in 2002, two weeks after the United States withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

US President George W. Bush signed an order in October tacitly asserting the US right to space weapons, and opposing the development of treaties or other measures restricting them.

Rocca told the conference: “We must be very concerned about the emerging threats to our space assets,” citing China's Jan 11 test, which she said “created hundreds of pieces of large orbital debris, the majority of which will stay in orbit for more than 100 years.”

China's neighbours Japan and South Korea also have expressed concern about the dangers to their satellite communications posed by the debris.

Rocca said the US was only exercising its right to self-defence.

“The United States is not out to claim space for its own or weaponise it,” but needs to develop the defences because a “relatively small number of countries” either possess or are developing the capability to attack and defeat vital US space systems by jamming satellite links, blinding sensors or launching anti-satellite weapons, she said.

Nevertheless, Rocca said, “we believe there is no arms race in space, and therefore no problem for arms control to solve.”

Japanese Ambassador Sumio Tarui described the Sino-Russian plan as “vague and obscure.”

German Ambassador Bernhard Brassack, speaking on behalf of the 27-nation European Union, said countries should be realistic seek a compromise short of a full treaty.

“The recent test of an anti-satellite weapon should serve as a wake-up call,” he said.—AP