US envoy John Bolton ended unscheduled talks with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Friday and said Washington had set "no deadline" for reaching an agreement with Moscow on US plans to drop a key arms control agreement.
However Ivanov observed a stony silence after the meeting, making no response to US President George W. Bush's declaration that Washington intended to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty no matter what Moscow did.
Trying to ease building tensions, Bolton assured Ivanov that Washington had set "no deadline" for Russia to agree with US intentions to withdraw from the treaty, which bars Washington from building a missile defense system.
The US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control said that during his 50-minute talks with Russia's top diplomat, he had "discussed the consultations that (his) delegation had in Moscow" earlier in the week.
Moscow officials have remained unbending in the face of US pressure to agree to the US plan, but appear to be privately resigned to Washington pressing ahead regardless with its "son of star wars" defense shield project.
The latest diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the dispute have run a rocky course, with Moscow failing to react to Bush' comment that the United States "will withdraw from the ABM treaty on our timetable."
Initially due to leave Moscow on Wednesday, Bolton extended his stay after three days of talks with senior Russian foreign ministry and defense officials in order to meet Ivanov, who returned from holiday on Thursday.
Washington says missile defense is needed to ward off the threat of so-called "rogue states" such as North Korea and Iran.
Moscow and its fellow nuclear power China are opposed to the US project, and consider the ABM a cornerstone of global strategic stability.
Beijing cautioned the United States Thursday to act with "prudence" in withdrawing from the ABM.
Bolton, the third senior US envoy to visit Moscow to discuss strategic security in less than a month, said his talks with Ivanov had been mainly devoted to preparing further meetings between the US and Russian presidents and top diplomats.
"We discussed most significantly the preparations for the meeting that Foreign Minister Ivanov will have during his trip to Washington with Secretary of State Powell on September 19 and further preparations that they will need for the meeting of the two presidents (George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin) first in Shanghai and then in Crawford, Texas."
Bush and Putin are to meet in Shanghai in October and in the United States at Bush's Texas ranch in November.
He confirmed that the United States had set "no deadline" for Russia to assent to US intentions to withdraw from the ABM.
An interview he gave on Moscow Echo radio late Tuesday gave rise to media reports that he had set Russia a deadline, but Washington officials and Bolton himself insisted that no ultimatum had been set.
The United States favors a joint withdrawal with Russia from the ABM treaty but is prepared to exercise its right to pull out unilaterally, he said Wednesday.
Changes in position by either side are considered unlikely until the Pentagon completes a review of its defence strategy that would allow Washington to present Moscow with firm figures for its missile reduction proposals.
However, US-Russian strategic talks are set to continue, with Ivanov confirming he was to meet his US counterpart Colin Powell in Washington on September 19 in what would be the eighth official meeting between the two top diplomats -- MOSCOW (AFP)
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