WASHINGTON, March 13: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said here on Wednesday that there were unmistakable links between Al Qaeda and Chechen fighters, and some former Chechen officials had visited Afghanistan when the Taliban were in power in Kabul.

Ivanov was talking to the press after meeting US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld at the Pentagon in the first high-level US-Russia contact since leakage of the nuclear posture review that names Russia among countries against which the

US nuclear weapons could be used.

The Russian foreign minister, answering questions on the review, made it clear that Russia would maintain nuclear safety parity with the US.

The two countries have agreed on limiting nuclear weapons, but the review suggests that the US might want to retain and modify rather than destroy its existing reduced nuclear arsenal.