U.S. envoy defends proposed space defense system

GENEVA (Reuters) -- The United States on Thursday defended the national missile defense (NMD) system being considered by President Bill Clinton, saying it would be a "far cry from the 'weaponization' of outer space."

U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Grey told the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in a speech that the proposed anti-missile shield was not directed at Russia or China, but rather intended to protect the United States from a limited ballistic attack by certain hostile states.

Defense Secretary William Cohen is to make his recommendation shortly to President Clinton on whether to proceed with building an anti-missile radar in Alaska.

Both China and Russia bitterly oppose the $60 billion system, which they say would shatter the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. They fear that the shield, to be deployed by 2005, could also rapidly evolve to threaten their nuclear arsenals.

But Grey told the 66-state body in Geneva: "A system capable of defending against a large-scale attack with sophisticated weapons would be both qualitatively and quantitatively different from that which the U.S. is considering."

U.S. officials say the system would be geared to shoot down missiles from "rogue" states such as North Korea and Iran.

The U.S. envoy said the weapons, interceptors, launchers and radar being considered for the shield were terrestrial, not space-based. Satellites would be used only to provide early warning and data on missile threats.

"This is a far cry from the 'weaponization' of outer space," Grey declared. "There is no arms race in outer space -- rather, there is unprecedented cooperation."

He added: "Satellites belonging to a number of countries here, including those strongly supporting outer space negotiations, already orbit the earth by the dozens, providing various types of data for military purposes to ships, aircraft and ground forces worldwide. Should we prohibit these, too?"

The United States and Russia have been discussing how to "preserve and strengthen" the ABM, according to Grey. The 1972 pact bans either country from having a national missile defense.

"During these discussions, the United States has proposed modifications to the treaty that would permit the deployment of the initial NMD systems. The United States remains firmly committed to these bilateral discussions," the U.S. envoy said.

The latest round of confidential talks between senior U.S. and Russian arms control negotiations on a START-3 treaty and related ABM issues took place in Geneva two weeks ago.

"The U.S. remains committed to the arms control and disarmament process and sees no contradiction between that process and pursuit of a limited NMD system," Grey said.

"The ABM treaty is an integral part of our mutual efforts with the Russian Federation to reduce offensive nuclear arms."

Diplomats say that the United States is the lone member of the world's only multilateral arms control negotiating body to oppose formal negotiations on preventing an arms race in space.

Grey reiterated that the U.S. delegation could agree to the establishment of a committee to "discuss" outer space issues.

But he accused other states of using a lack of consensus on outer space as a pretext to stall negotiations to halt production of nuclear bomb-making fissile material -- plutonium and highly-enriched uranium -- widely seen as the next step in global nuclear disarmament. U.S. officials in Geneva named the states as Russia, China and Pakistan.

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