U.S., Russia discuss nuclear forces, missile defense

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pentagon officials are meeting Tuesday with a Russian three-star general to "exchange information" in advance of United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's scheduled trip to Moscow next week.

These are the first in a series of high-level meetings ordered by U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin last month.

Last week Rumsfeld said the meetings would be "an exchange of information more than an exchange of views."

The Russian delegation, headed by Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, Russian first deputy chief of staff, is scheduled to include two days of discussions with a Pentagon team led by Douglas Feith, under secretary of defense for policy.

The United States is seeking a new framework with Russia that would allow both sides to reduce the size of their nuclear arsenals and permit the United States to deploy a limited missile defense system, without the formality of renegotiating arms control treaties.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said last week, "We've stated many times, our goal is to try to design a new framework, rather than a treaty that was entered into at a different time in history, with a country that no longer exists. The preferred option is to go about this a different way.

"But the president has stated that he intends to move beyond the ABM Treaty, hopefully in concert with Russia -- a new relationship with that country," Quigley said.