Yeltsin calls nuclear arsenal vital

President Boris Yeltsin said Friday that Russia's nuclear arsenal was the backbone of national security and supported a series of measures aimed at maintaining and developing it, the Kremlin spokesman said.

Sergei Yastrzhembsky told reporters that Yeltsin had also confirmed that Russia's strategic nuclear forces were safe and under full control."The president stressed that nuclear deterrence remains a basic element of Russia's national security," Yastrzhembsky said, referring to comments made by Yeltsin to a session of his Security Council, an advisory board of top security officials.

The council met for the first time in two months to discuss Russia's long-term nuclear strategy. Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko and Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev were among officials attending the session.

"Major decisions were made on developing strategic nuclear forces, on developing nuclear and space technology, on financing the strategic nuclear forces, cutting arms and developing the nuclear non-proliferation regime," Yastrzhembsky said.

He declined to give any details.

Yastrzhembsky also quoted Yeltsin as saying Russia's strategic nuclear forces were safe, despite a need for upgrading.

"The president said that Russia's nuclear forces are under full control, reliable and meet national security needs in their current form," he said.

The head of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces said in a newspaper interview published on Thursday that Russia currently had 756 strategic weapon launchers on combat duty, adding that Moscow's ability to wage nuclear war was unchanged from Soviet times despite cash woes.

Col.-Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev told Noviye Izvestia daily newspaper that the Strategic Missile Forces controlled about 60 percent of all Russian nuclear warheads.

Yastrzhembsky quoted Yeltsin as urging a prompt ratification of the 1993 START-2 treaty, which slashes the two countries' deployed nuclear warheads by up to two-thirds from about 6,000 each to no more than 3,500 each by the year 2007.

The U.S. Senate has ratified the treaty, but the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, has held back saying it was not sure the pact fully met Russia's security concerns.

Some deputies say the United States is developing weapons that could violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.