Senators clash on arms treaty as pressure grows

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers debating the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia clashed on Friday over whether the pact would improve or hurt U.S. national security as pressure mounted for a vote next week before the U.S. Senate breaks for Christmas.

The treaty, one of President Barack Obama's top priorities for the current legislative session, would commit Russia and the United States to cut deployed strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 for each side within seven years.

Although nine Republicans voted with Democrats to allow debate on the treaty, it was unclear whether all of them would vote to support the accord, which needs a two-thirds' majority to pass in the 100-member Senate.

Republican senators charged on Friday the treaty would unwisely limit development of U.S. offensive and defensive missile systems. They questioned the benefit of continuing to cut atomic weapons and challenged President Barack Obama's goal of ultimately eliminating all nuclear arms.

The treaty, signed by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April, is viewed as a centerpiece for improving U.S.-Russian relations

The military establishment, from Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the uniformed service chiefs, support the treaty, putting Republicans in the unusual position of disagreeing with the military on a defense issue.

"This treaty does certainly, at the very least, have the threat of reducing our capability of defending ourselves," said Senator Jim Inhofe, who brought out color charts and maps to support his point.

Senator John McCain, an Obama critic who joined Democrats in voting to begin debate on the treaty, introduced an amendment to eliminate language in the pact's preamble that Republicans fear could impede development of U.S. missile defenses.

"I don't think this treaty is going to decrease proliferation. I think on its face it will increase the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world," said Senator Jim DeMint, a treaty opponent.

Senator John Kerry, who as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee led floor debate on the accord, expressed surprise at Republican opposition to Obama's goal of ultimately eliminating all nuclear weapons.

"For heaven's sake. It's incredible to me that you can't imagine and have a vision of the possibility of a world in which you ultimately work to get there," Kerry said.

He said eliminating atomic weapons was a goal not likely to be achieved for many years, if ever, but he added that "president after president has talked about" achieving that aim.

"NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT"

As the Senate debated the treaty for a third consecutive day, Democratic leader Harry Reid ramped up pressure for lawmakers to wrap up their work on the pact next week. He agreed to extend debate on the agreement until Tuesday but insisted they vote before leaving for the holiday.

"We've done some very, very important things during this Congress, but there is nothing, nothing more important than the START treaty because it has ramifications far greater than our own country," Reid said.

Reid said some lawmakers were seeking six to seven days for debate on the treaty and he was trying to clear the calendar to permit that. Previous strategic arms control treaties generally have taken two to five days of debate.

Kerry noted that Republican opponents of the treaty had been slow to introduce any amendments and warned that proponents of the pact would seek to cut off debate and move to a vote if progress on the agreement stalled.

Democrats are under pressure to approve the treaty in the remaining days of the current Congress after seeing their 58-42 majority cut to 53-47 in the November elections.

If the treaty is delayed until next year, they would need additional Republican support and would face delays as the newly elected senators take the time to learn about the pact.

In addition to cutting deployed nuclear warheads, the pact calls for each side to reduce deployed nuclear missiles and bombers to no more than 700. It also creates a system for on-the-ground inspections and data exchanges to verify the two sides are abiding by the accord.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)