Putin offers arsenal cut

Chirac and Putin support maintaining the 1972 ABM Treaty

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia has reaffirmed its commitment to a nuclear non-proliferation treaty that the U.S wants to scrap by offering to cut its nuclear arsenal.

President Vladimir Putin told a Moscow news conference he was willing to reduce to under 1,500 the number of Russian warheads if the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) was preserved.

The future of ABM is in doubt because the U.S. hopes to develop a National Missile Defense system to shoot down incoming missiles -- which would also be contrary to the treaty.

The U.S. has said the treaty is outdated and stands in the way of President George W. Bush's proposals for a missile defence system.

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Putin said: "Our concrete proposal is that we are ready for a further controlled reduction to 1,500 warheads and even less, but I want to stress controlled."

He was speaking after meeting French President Jacques Chirac, whose country also has strong reservations about the U.S. plan.

The two leaders issued a statement on international strategic issues in which both France and Russia confirmed support for the ABM treaty.

Putin also said any reductions in the Russian arsenal would be "closely linked to maintaining the ABM treaty."

"We attach great importance to our statement of strategic stability," Putin said.

A three-page statement said Russia and France see it as their task to ensure a strategic balance in the post-Cold War world.

"The mechanism for that exist at the present time," the statement said, in a reference to the ABM treaty.

Although modifications to the ABM treaty concern specifically the U.S. and Russia, the statement says an international conference on nuclear proliferation would be useful.

Russia and France believe destruction of the ABM treaty could lead to a new arms race.

As well as missile defence, Putin and Chirac also discussed issues on which they do not share common ground, specifically the Balkans and the war in Chechnya.

Putin has criticised the decision to deliver former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal, saying he had doubts the move would bring stability to the Balkans.

Chirac says he welcomed the move as a "victory of law over violence, of democracy over tyranny."

On Chechnya, the French leader repeated his country's position that only a negotiated settlement could lead to a lasting peace.

France had been one of the fiercest critics of Russia's war against Chechen separatists.