US envoy meets Russian officials, heads for talks with FM
( 2001-09-17 15:58 ) (7 )

US Undersecretary of State John Bolton met his Russian counterpart Georgy Mamedov Monday for talks on strategic stability likely to focus on the issue of terrorism, Russian news agencies reported.

Bolton was due later to meet Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, the RIA Novosti news agency said, quoting a diplomatic source.

The meeting with Mamedov comes ahead of talks in Washington Wednesday between Ivanov and US Secretary of State Colin Powell that had been expected to deal with US plans to build a missile defence shield in violation of a key 1972 disarmament treaty.

But Mamedov said ahead of the meeting with Bolton that in Russian-US relations with regard to strategic stability, "the priority must be given to the fight against terrorism."

Last week's terror attacks in New York and Washington show there is a "real threat facing Russia and the United States, which can be met by strengthening the world order and the fight against terrorism," Mamedov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

Current accords between Moscow and Washington with regard to offensive strategic weapons and anti-missile defence "are an integral part of that order," Mamedov said in a reference to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty that Washington in planning to abrogate.

Russia is bitterly opposed to the US missile defence plan but has expressed agreement to US plans to take reprisals for last Tuesday's terror attacks in which more than 5,000 people are believed to have died.

The United States is pondering military action in Afghanistan, bordering the former Soviet republics on Russia's southern flank, if it should be confirmed that the outrages were organised by Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born businessman currently sheltered by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement.

Bolton arrived in Moscow Sunday and was due to leave later Monday.