Bush, Putin sign nuclear deal amid tensions over aid to Iran

MOSCOW -- Beneath the Kremlin's gleaming domes, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the biggest arms-reduction treaty in history on Friday, writing a friendly postscript to their nations' Cold War rivalry.

But before the ink had dried on their 10-year pact, the leaders were struggling to keep Russia's nuclear ties to Iran from straining their new partnership. "Our nations must spare no effort at preventing all forms of proliferation," Bush said as his aides considered offering incentives to win Russia's cooperation.

Elbow to elbow with Putin in the gilded St. Andrews Hall, Bush said the treaty-signing ceremony "ended a long chapter of confrontation and opened up an entirely new relationship between our countries."

The Cold War is now "in the rearview mirror of both countries," he said.

Putin called the treaty "a serious move ahead to ensure international security." It marked another tentative step away from Russia's Communist past and toward the West in ways once considered unthinkable.

Next week, Putin will join Bush in Rome to sign an accord binding Russia with NATO, though not as a member of the military alliance formed in the Cold War to contain the Soviet Union.

The arms accord would limit the United States and Russia within 10 years to between 1,700 and 2,200 deployed strategic nuclear warheads each, down from about 6,000 apiece now.

The U.S. Senate and the Russian Duma are expected to ratify the three-page treaty. The relatively small size reflects Bush's informal diplomatic style as well as his reluctance to commit the United States in writing to anything more than he had to.

The treaty allows the United States to store warheads rather than destroy them as Putin wanted. And it leaves both nations with enough missiles to destroy each others' major cities many times over.

"Friends really don't need weapons pointed at each other. We both understand that," Bush said.

Helping Iran

At a news conference, Bush said he pressed Putin about Russia's nuclear assistance to Iran -- a country the United States has branded a sponsor of terror and part of an "axis of evil" alongside Iraq and North Korea.

"He gave me some assurances that I think will be very comforting to you," Bush told reporters without elaborating.

The Russian gave no ground, defending his assistance to Iran as largely energy-related and pointing out that the United States has helped North Korea build a nuclear power plant. Besides, he said, much of Iran's nuclear program is based on Western technology.

Behind closed doors, Putin told Bush that Russia had no intention of doing anything to help Iran's nuclear weapons program, an administration official said. Furthermore, Putin suggested that perhaps the issue should be studied by a panel of experts -- or even by the new NATO-Russia council expected to be created, the official said.