I think we have to not only consider the efficacy of the deterrent but also where these systems fit in to the strategic arms control negotiations.

Mr. Weinberger added that this would promote progress in the arms control negotiations.

President Clinton, in contrast, embraced arms control negotiations.

It continues to appear in subsequent arms control negotiations, which have a general theme called "trust but verify".

"It's like arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union," a senior American official said.

But Moscow wants strict verification in the parallel nuclear arms control negotiations, including the right to inspect any company that might be secretly building missiles.

When it was signed last September, officials voiced the hope that it would lend momentum to other ongoing arms control negotiations.

He also defended formal arms control negotiations as essential to maintaining the nuclear peace.

Today's concession by Moscow is actually the latest in what has become a pattern over the last two years in the arms control negotiations.

All in all, the verification regime we have put forward is the most stringent in the history of arms control negotiations.