U.S. Still Wants Arms Cut Deal With Russia Before Summit: Spokesman

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, February 20, 2002

U.S. Still Wants Arms Cut Deal With Russia Before Summit: Spokesman

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The United States said Tuesday that it was still trying to reach a deal with Russia on nuclear arms reductions prior to a summit between U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin in May.

"The intention is to work on a deal and see if it can be prepared for the two presidents to reach agreement on the strategic framework issues," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said at a news briefing.

"That's always been the intention," he said, adding that both sides would be keep working on such a deal.

But he also admitted that whether the two sides can actually achieve an agreement on the issue would depend on the substance oftheir ongoing negotiations.

Boucher made the remarks in response to comments made by U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton in Moscow on Tuesday that the U.S. and Russia might fail to reach a nuclear arms cut deal before the May summit because "difficult issues" still persist.

"We have a number of difficult issues -- questions about how exactly to account for the offensive strategic warheads, measures of transparency and verification and a series of issues that stillhave to be resolved," Bolton, who leads U.S. weapons negotiations with Russia, was quoted as saying.

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