Republican Jesse Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the panel "will not consider any new, last-minute arms control measures that this administration negotiates in its final, closing months in office."

Helms, a staunch Clinton foe, specifically targeted US efforts to tinker with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty that would hamper deployment of a national missile defense (NMD) system.

"Let's be clear ... any modified ABM treaty negotiated by this administration will be dead-on-arrival at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee," he said in a sharply worded speech from the chamber floor.

Helms, who considers the ABM treaty void because it was negotiated with the Soviet Union, is among the many lawmakers who say NMD is needed to shield the United States from missile attacks by nations like North Korea or Iran.

State Department spokesman James Rubin said Helms' comments, while not new, could harm US efforts to reduce nuclear tensions with Russia, adding that "in the past, treaties have been approved that he voted against and that he opposed."

Rubin also noted that US efforts to amend the ABM treaty to allow for a limited national missile defense -- a move Moscow opposes -- are central to discussions here this week between US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her visiting Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov.

Helms later left a meeting between key senators and Ivanov saying he had not changed his position: "I'm not going to give (that) 'showboat' down there (Clinton) any opportunity to try to get a treaty through."

In his floor speech, Helms charged that Clinton -- who met with Ivanov Tuesday -- desperately sought to tack a last-minute arms control deal to a legacy of "eight years of negligence" of national security.

"If the price of that final curtain call is a resurrection of the US-Soviet ABM Treaty that would prevent the United States from protecting itself against missile attack, then that price is far too high," said Helms, whose committee has jurisdiction over such treaties.

"It is my intent to do everything in my power to ensure that nothing is done in the next few months, by this administration, to tie the hands of the next administration in pursuing a new national security policy," the senator said.

White House spokesman Mike Hammer said Tuesday that Clinton and Ivanov discussed preparations for Clinton's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin set for June 4 and 5 in Moscow.

Clinton -- who leaves office in January 2001 -- will probably make a decision on whether to go forward with NMD in "late summer or at the beginning of fall," according to Hammer.

"Their talks were focused on the preparation of the upcoming summit centering on arms controls," Hammer said, adding that Clinton "called for an intensification of the discussions on the ABM treaty, the NMD and START III."

But Helms stressed that "the Russian government should not be under any illusion whatsoever that any commitments made by this lame-duck administration will be binding on the next administration."

Copyright 1999 AFP. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by AFP and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

MILSPACE
US Urged To Drop National Missile Defense Program
Washington (AFP) April 11, 2000 - A panel of scientists urged the United States to shelve its plans to deploy a new National Missile Defense system, saying it would be ineffective.