Ivanov worried by U.S. shield

GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) -- Russia's foreign minister has called for "active dialogue" with the U.S. over its proposed National Missile Defense (NMD) programme.

Speaking a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin and the new U.S. President George Bush had their first telephone conversation, Igor Ivanov suggested a set of fresh measures which he said would preserve their Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty.

Measures to dispel perceived "new missile threats" would include setting up the agreed joint U.S.-Russian Missile Launch Data Exchange Centre and international cooperation regarding theatre missile defence systems, Moscow's top diplomat said on Thursday.

Following his speech to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Ivanov headed for Berne for talks with his Swiss counterpart, Joseph Deiss.

Those talks were expected to include the politically explosive case of former Kremlin aide Pavel Borodin, held in New York last month on a Swiss arrest warrant for suspected money laundering in connection with refurbishment of the Kremlin.

Bush favours constructing the shield --- at an estimated cost of $60 billion -- to protect America from so-called rogue states, such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea, but the 1972 ABM pact bans such systems.

"We think it necessary that an active and meaningful dialogue on this topic be resumed with the new U.S. administration as soon as possible," Ivanov declared.

Quoting Roman philosopher-statesman Lucius Seneca, he said: "Some medicines are more dangerous than diseases themselves."

Ivanov added: "As an alternative to a national missile defence system we propose a whole package of constructive political and diplomatic measures. Their aim is to dispel concerns -- not only by the United States -- about the so-called 'new missile threats' while preserving the ABM Treaty."

Ivanov reiterated Russia's call to negotiate with the United States on a START-III pact to cut their arsenals of strategic nuclear warheads to 1,500 each, instead of 2,000-2,500 each. "We are ready subsequently to consider even lower levels," he added.

The U.N. body's 66 member states include the five official nuclear powers (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) and nuclear-capable India and Pakistan.

Russia, China and Pakistan have strongly criticised the proposed U.S. missile shield which they say would violate ABM and upset global strategic stability.

Ivanov called on the Geneva talks -- mired in a stalemate for four years -- to launch negotiations to ban an arms race in outer space and also to ban production of nuclear bomb-making fissile materials (plutonium and highly enriched uranium).

"It is high time that a reliable international legal 'safety net' be created in this respect. Efforts and resources of our space agencies should be aimed at peaceful, including commercial, cooperation," Russia's foreign minister said.

In a speech, British envoy Ian Soutar called the fissile talks "an essential step" in nuclear disarmament, but said the time was not ripe for full-fledged negotiations on outer space.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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