MOSCOW, Nov 5: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Monday that Moscow and Washington had made “a certain amount of progress” towards resolving differences over disarmament and missile defence.

Ivanov’s comments came as Russian and US negotiators held last-minute talks on sensitive strategic issues ahead of next week’s meetings between President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart George W. Bush in the United States.

Russian news agencies quoted Ivanov as saying that “a certain amount of progress” had been made over differences on the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty and the size of future cuts in nuclear arsenals.

However the Russian defence minister refused to clarify his remarks, noting only that Moscow was running a full re-evaluation of its strategic interests in wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

“We need to be looking into the future rather than clinging on to the past,” he said.

He cited Russia’s decision last month to close a Cuban listening post that eavesdropped on US communications and a key naval base in Vietnam as examples of the new-found understanding between Moscow and Washington.

But Ivanov stressed that details of a compromise on strategic security would be announced by the two presidents at their November 13-15 talks.

The progress came as US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov to negotiate the “question of disarmament,” a Russian foreign ministry statement said.

The two sides “have created conditions for the development of a principal understanding about the framework of future strategic relations between our two nations,” the ministry said.

Moscow reiterated that it supported “radical” nuclear missile cuts, a Russian pre-condition for any negotiations on US plans to test a missile defence shield which contravenes existing strategic agreements.

the US embassy said Bolton arrived in Moscow on Saturday during a brief visit by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and that he would leave Russia on Tuesday.

“They are working on last-minute preparations for the summit,” a US embassy official.

During his talks Saturday with Ivanov, Rumsfeld won the important concession from Moscow that it was prepared to negotiate changes to the 1972 ABM treaty. Ivanov said the treaty had “in part” become a Cold War relic.

But Rumsfeld also stressed that the specifics of any deal could only be disclosed by the two presidents.

Some military analysts predict that Bush and Putin will come to an informal understanding under which Washington will slash its nuclear arsenal by two-thirds in exchange for Russia turning a blind eye to limited missile defence testing by the United States.

However Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov warned last week that it would be premature to expect the two presidents to sign any formal agreement concerning missile defence and the ABM at their talks in Washington and at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Russia fears the US missile shield could render its own nuclear arsenal useless in the coming decades, while Washington argues that Western nations need protection from potential missile attacks from so-called rogue states.—AFP