RUSSIA - Aug. 9 - Talks With US On Missile Defences.

A Defence Ministry delegation headed by the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff Col. Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky has concluded 2-day talks at the Pentagon with the US delegation led by Douglas Feith on ballistic missile defences and possible cuts in nuclear arsenals. (The talks set the stage for consultations next week in Moscow between Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld). A senior US defence official describes the talks as "an exchange of information, more than an exchange of views". The delegations of about 10 members discussed "offensive and defensive systems and the broader framework for co-operation". (At the July G-8 summit meeting in Genoa, Pres. Putin and Pres. Bush issued a statement calling for "intensive consultations on the interrelated subjects of offensive and defensive systems". The US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice met Putin four days later in Moscow and laid out a schedule for talks. The discussions are to set the stage for talks between Putin and Bush at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meeting in Shanghai in October and a meeting in November at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas). Rumsfeld has said the US administration has no immediate intention of violating the 1972 ABM Treaty in pursuing its missile defence plan. (The treaty prohibits the construction of national missile defences. Putin said Moscow regards the ABM Treaty as a cornerstone of security and arms control and has challenged the Bush administration to reduce each side's nuclear arsenal to 1,500 warheads).