(http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000921/ts/arms_space_dc_1.html)

GENEVA (Reuters) - Russian and Chinese disarmament negotiators Thursday denounced the proposed U.S. missile shield system and the Russian hinted that a new nuclear arms reduction treaty could not go ahead unless it was dropped.

Addressing the final session of the main United Nations (news - web sites) arms control forum this year, Russian ambassador Vasily Sidorov and China's envoy Hu Xiaodi suggested that U.S. fears of attack by a rogue state with ballistic missiles were unfounded.

Both called for preserving the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, which the U.S. national missile defense (NMD (news - web sites)) system would amend, and for launching global negotiations aimed at preventing an arms race in outer space, which America opposes.

``No small country would ever attack or threaten to attack the militarily most powerful country in the world unless it decides to commit suicide,创 Hu declared. ``It is only a clumsy excuse.创

``We are convinced that the issue of missile proliferation can and must be dealt with without disrupting the ABM Treaty,创 added Sidorov.

The Russian delegate also linked maintaining the landmark ABM intact to progress on a future START-III aimed at cutting the two powers' strategic offensive nuclear weapons stockpiles.

``We support the immediate beginning of START-III negotiations...In so doing, we proceed from the fact that conclusion of START-III Treaty is not possible unless the ABM Treaty preserves its integrity.创

Fear Of Arms Race In Space

``Space will also become a battlefield for NMD...The danger of the weaponization of and an arms race in outer space is real,创 China磗 Hu added.

Robert Grey, U.S. ambassador to the 66-member state forum, took the floor to dismiss China's ``misrepresentations创 of U.S. intentions. He charged that its allegations became ``less persuasive with each repetition.创

Last week, Hu said in a lengthy speech that the NMD shield could lead to the ``blackmail of nuclear war.创

It was the third year in a row that the Geneva talks had failed to launch substantive negotiations on any issue, according to senior diplomats and U.N. sources. They blamed divisions among the official nuclear powers (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) for the continued total paralysis.

Russian Opens Attack

Sidorov opened the debate with an attack on NMD and a plea to preserve the 1972 ABM treaty which bans the development, testing or deployment of weapons in outer space.

Russia viewed as ``responsible创 the recent decision by President Clinton (news - web sites) to defer to his successor whether to forge ahead with the multibillion dollar shield, but could not overlook that NMD programs were still under way, he said.

Referring to perceived missile threats, Sidorov said: ``We consider that references to such a threat have no serious foundation...the proliferation of such ballistic missiles is not foreseen either today or in the near future.创

Sidorov also said that creating and deploying NMD would boost the proliferation of missiles and missile technologies. Global negotiations aimed at halting production of nuclear bomb-making fissile material (plutonium and highly-enriched uranium) are viewed as the next step in multilateral disarmament following the 1996 underground nuclear test ban treaty.

But delegations this year have been unable to agree on an overall program of work, which would include fissile ``cut-off创 talks, wider talks on total nuclear disarmament, and talks to prevent an arms race in outer space.

``It was a totally wasted year as far as the CD (Conference on Disarmament) is concerned,创 Britain磗 ambassador Ian Soutar told Reuters.