The United States sought to reassure both its NATO allies and Russia on Tuesday that it would not develop a controversial missile defense system without consulting them.
At a meeting of NATO and European Union foreign ministers in Budapest, Secretary of State Colin Powell also said Washington would not unilaterally withdraw its troops from international peacekeeping missions in the Balkans.
Ministers were briefed by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana before he flew back to Macedonia, where his staff later announced a breakthrough in talks aimed at preventing a breakup of the troubled country's ethnically mixed coalition government.
Powell acknowledged that it would take time for Washington to persuade skeptical allies that a missile defense system was needed to guard against possible "rogue" attacks. Other members of the alliance fear such a system could spark a new arms race.
Powell said President George Bush was not examining the issue in isolation but was looking at an "overall strategic framework."
"We're looking at reductions in offensive weapons, we're looking at what technologies are available to deal with limited missile attacks," he told a news conference.
"I made it clear to them that this is a real consultation that President Bush wants...and not a phony consultation," Powell added.
"At the same time I made it clear to them that we know we have to move forward. We can see the threat. The threat is clear and we have to deal with that threat.
"We'll do it in a way that I think will enhance overall strategic stability and it'll take us time to persuade everybody of that proposition. But I think we'll be successful at the end of the day."
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov reaffirmed Moscow's hostility to the US plan but welcomed Washington's willingness to discuss the project rather than steamroller it through.
"We very much hope that in the future this kind of consultation and discussion will enable us to find a solution, a way that will help international stability and does not undermine the architecture of a disarmament which has been created in the course of the last 30 years," he said.
He spoke after a meeting of the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council, a consultative body that gives Moscow a voice in the Atlantic Alliance but no right to veto its decisions.
Ivanov said he hoped the two sides could keep intact the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty which Moscow sees as vital for strategic stability, while meeting US fears about nuclear missile programs developed by North Korea, Iraq and Iran.
But a communiqué issued after the NATO meeting made no mention of the treaty, in marked contrast to the last foreign ministers' meeting in December which had affirmed it.
The NATO meeting -- the alliance's first behind the old Iron Curtain -- condemned "extremist" violence in Macedonia and reaffirmed allies' support for a "firm but flexible" Macedonian government as it fought ethnic Albanian rebels.
Solana's spokeswoman said in Skopje that the envoy had succeeded in brokering agreement between the Macedonian coalition parties -- BUDAPEST (Reuters)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
