Russia regretted the US move, formally taking effect this week, to abrogate the treaty, seen by Moscow as a cornerstone of arms limitation agreements for 30 years, Ivanov said in the Canadian city of Whistler.

"The primary aim is to minimise the negative consequences of the US withdrawal from the ABM treaty," he was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

"Thanks to Russia's efforts, the negotiating process on strategic offensive weapons and missile defence has not been terminated," Ivanov said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart George W. Bush signed a historic deal in Moscow last month slashing each side's nuclear arsenals by two thirds to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads over the next decade.

However Bush gave notice in December, despite Russian objections, that Washington would unilaterally withdraw from the 1972 treaty signed with the now-defunct Soviet Union in order to develop an anti-missile defence system.

The ABM treaty forbade the US and the Soviet Union from developing a unilateral shield against intercontinental ballistic missile attacks, and also banned testing or deployment of all mobile antiballistic missile systems.

Each country was exceptionally allowed two ABM sites, one to protect their respective capitals and another to prevent creation of a regional or nationwide system.

The first step towards the new American missile doctrine is set for Saturday, when Air Force General Ronald Kadish, head of the Missile Defence Agency, attends a ceremony to break ground on silos for six interceptor missiles at Fort Greely, Alaska. It is due to be completed by September 2004.

It will be the first time in 30 years that there are no constraints on Washington's ability to test and deploy systems able to down long-range enemy missiles.

Bush, who has dismissed the ABM treaty as a Cold War relic, believes the US is vulnerable to long-range missile attack from Iran, Iraq or North Korea, nations he regards a part of an "axis of evil."

So far, the Pentagon has successfully shot down four "enemy" missiles in seven preliminary tests, but US critics of the missile defence plan note the shield would have done nothing to stop the September 11 attacks.

Philip Coyle, a senior Pentagon official under former US president Bill Clinton, wrote in the Washington Post that the basic missile program would cost 70 billion dollars (74 billion euros.)

But he added that some 20 developmental tests, each costing 100 million dollars would be needed before the program could advance to the next stage of realistic operational testing.

Russia, China and the United States' European allies initially protested Bush's decision to pull out of the ABM treaty, but even in Moscow opposition has diminished with Russian firms hoping to win key missile defence contracts.

Reaction to the ABM withdrawal was muted in Moscow Thursday with senior lawmakers and defence experts saying the six-month notice period had given Russia time to come to terms with what the State Duma, the country's parliament, termed a "serious political mistake."

"The withdrawal was expected, but even so it is not a positive development, which means Russia will have to decide how its own security is affected and what measures it must take to minimise the threat," Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov said.

Sergei Markov of Moscow's Political Research Institute warned that the ABM withdrawal could lead to a dangerous "domino effect" increasing the probability of nuclear conflict by 50 percent over the next decade.

"Nuclear dominoes will force China to boost its nuclear arsenal to counteract the US shield, prompting Beijing's enemy India to do the same, thus sparking a riposte from Pakistan whose 'Islamic' bomb will draw Israel into the race," Markov added.

However, Russian ultranationalist deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky welcomed the US withdrawal from the ABM treaty because "at 30-years-old it was past its sell-by date."

"Today is like a national holiday because from now on, we are not bound by the ABM, and so we will be able to do whatever we like, including deploying other weapons systems in space," Zhirinovsky added.

All rights reserved. � 2002 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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