Powell leaves Moscow without deal

Putin and Powell at a joint press conference in the Kremlin

MOSCOW, Russia -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has left Moscow after a 24-hour visit during which he failed to secure a missile agreement.

Powell, on his first visit to the former Soviet Union since taking over U.S. foreign affairs, had hoped to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept Washington's missile defence plans.

Moscow has said a move towards a missile defence strategy would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

CNN's Jill Dougherty said the situation "looked pretty much the same" following the talks between Powell and Putin, as well as separate talks between the secretary of state and his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov on Monday.

"The position of the sides remain unchanged," Ivanov told a joint news conference.

Talks between the two countries have stalled during the past year over the United States' plan to move ahead on tests of its proposed missile defence system which go against Russia's wishes.

U.S. President George W. Bush has said the United States will exercise its right to withdraw from the ABM treaty -- negotiated with the former Soviet Union -- after six months notice, if nothing can be worked out with the Russians.

"We're not excluding the possibility of the United States withdrawing from the ABM treaty," Ivanov said.

The foreign minister hinted that Russia might do the same if that happened, saying that Russia's first priority is "promoting our own national security."

Ivanov reiterated the Russian position that "this treaty is the key ... to strategic stability in the world."

The Bush administration had hoped the treaty could be modified in time to allow it to begin constructing silos and a testing command centre in Alaska next spring.

Powell had also hoped to be given a specific figure for the number of nuclear warheads Russia is intending to scrap as part of ongoing arms reductions that are running in tandem with discussions on the ABM.

The two countries announced on Wednesday that they had slashed their stockpile to levels set by the START-1 treaty, signed by Washington and Moscow in 1991, to 5,518, well below the ceiling of 6,000 established by the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.

Putin and Bush announced substantial cuts in nuclear arms stockpiles during Putin's visit to the United States last month, bringing them to the lowest level since the 1950s.

At the summit, Bush announced plans to cut U.S. strategic offensive weapons from 7,000 warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200. Russia has said it is ready to cut the number of its strategic warheads to about 1,500.

Dougherty said it "looked like a bit more progress" had been made on that front.

Ivanov had said "let us not waste time," Dougherty added. An agreement before Bush's visit to Moscow in 2002 was mentioned by Ivanov as a target.

Powell and Ivanov told the news conference after their talks that they were close to an agreement on specific missile reductions by Russia.

Powell had begun the day with a meeting with members of the Russian Parliament, discussing the overall U.S. Russian relationship.

Russian members of parliament want the United States to revoke the Jackson/Vanik amendment, which discriminates against Russian goods, claiming it is outdated.

Powell also discussed with Putin post-Taliban plans -- whether the U.S. would look to broaden its campaign against terror to countries other than Afghanistan.

NATO was also predicted to have been discussed as well as Russia's controversial leaks of technology and experience on weapons of mass destruction to Iran.

Powell, who is on an eight-day visit to Europe and central Asia, had earlier raised fresh questions about the ability of Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat to control Palestinian militant groups in the Mideast.

He said Arafat "has available to him tens of thousands of security personnel with weapons," and should be able to do a better job at cracking down on extremists. His comments came after the latest suicide bomb attack in the Mideast in which 25 people were injured.

Powell had placed flowers on a memorial at Pushkin Square shortly after his arrival in Moscow on Sunday, in memory of the 13 people who were killed last year in a terror bombing.

He left Moscow for Berlin, before plans to visit Paris and London on Tuesday.