Indian Military

WASHINGTON: Secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday beseeched the Senate to vote this year on a US-Russia nuclear weapons treaty, saying delay was a threat to the nation' security.

Clinton held a breakfast meeting with lawmakers from both parties a day after a key Senate Republican, Jon Kyl of Arizona, stunned the administration by coming out against a vote on the treaty during the current post-election session.

"This is not an issue that can afford to be postponed," Clinton said after the meeting.

She pledged to work with Senate supporters of the pact to overcome resistance. "We will do whatever it takes literally around the clock," Clinton said.

The secretary was flanked by Sens John Kerry and Dick Lugar, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the main advocates for the treaty. The pact would reduce limits on US and Russian strategic warheads and revive on-the-ground inspections that ceased when a previous treaty expired nearly a year ago.

"I refuse to believe that the door shouldn't remain open" to a vote during the current session, said Kerry. "The national security of our country deserves nothing less."

Kerry said there were no substantive disagreements on the treaty itself and that a major objection of Kyl's should have been removed when the administration pledged an additional USD 4.1 billion for weapons modernisation programmes.

The country "is unlikely to have either the treaty or the modernisation unless we get real," said Lugar.

All three stressed national security: Those in favour of postponing or avoiding a vote "vastly underestimate the continuing threat that is posed to this country," Clinton said.

Kyl, the second-ranked Senate Republican, issued a terse statement yesterday saying a vote should be put off until next year. That dealt a major blow to President Barack Obama's efforts to improve ties with Russia and to his broader strategy for reducing nuclear arms worldwide.

The treaty, known as New START, had been seen as one of the president's top foreign policy accomplishments.

Without the support of Kyl, the leading Republican voice on the treaty, Democrats have little hope of securing at least eight Republican votes, the minimum they would need for ratification in the current Senate.