US and Russia renew military exchanges

Smoothing over the tension: Generals Kvashnin (left) and Shelton

US and Russian military chiefs have agreed to revive exchanges between their respective armed forces, after a period of strain caused by the Kosovo conflict last year.

We see that it (Russian arms sales to Iran) could destabilise the region

General Shelton

The agreement was signed during talks in Moscow between chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Henry Shelton, and his Russian counterpart, General Anatoli Kvashnin.

The talks had been expected to cover a number of prickly issues, such as US plans to deploy an anti-missile shield and Russian plans to revive arms sales to Iran.

But both sides afterwards played down suggestions of friction, refusing even to admit the issues had been discussed.

Fears of destabilisation

General Shelton acknowledged that Washington was concerned about Moscow's announcement last month it would resume conventional arms sales to Iran "because we see that it could destabilise the region".

General Shelton: concerned about Iran links

"But we hope that this will be sorted out at political levels," he told reporters.

General Kvashnin said: "I don't think there will be any problems and we'll work in accordance with international agreements."

The BBC's defence correspondent, Jonathan Marcus, says General Shelton was also expected to try to clarify the contradictory signals coming from Moscow on Washington's plans to develop anti-missile defences.

The Republican presidential candidate George W Bush has strongly signalled his desire to press ahead with a missile defence system as quickly as possible.

This approach would inevitably require the US to break the anti-ballistic missile - or ABM - treaty limiting such systems.

Even the Democratic candidate Al Gore is committed to continuing research for such a programme.

Flexibility hinted at

Our correspondent said that General Shelton's trip would provide an opportunity to test the waters in Moscow, though it was not entirely clear to Washington who was articulating Russia's current policy.

The military approach tends to be firm adherence to the ABM treaty's guidelines with no room for compromise.

This was the view expounded by the Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev to his Nato hosts in Brussels last week.

It was publicly restated by General Kvashnin after Tuesday's talks.

However, the Russians have been told by the Americans through a variety of back-channels that the missile defence will go ahead.

And our correspondent says that both President Vladimir Putin and the head of Russia's strategic rocket forces General Vladimir Yakovlev have seemingly signalled some flexibility on the issue, especially if an accompanying deal can be struck to achieve dramatic reductions in nuclear warhead numbers.

But our correspondent says it is safe to say that the Russians are likely to wait until a new US administration is in place before laying their cards on the table.