Bush vows to withdraw from missile treaty

President George Bush banished any remaining doubt on the issue of his missile defence programme when he declared that America planned to pull out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty whether the Russians and European allies liked it or not.

"We will withdraw from the ABM treaty on our timetable at a time convenient to America," Mr Bush said on a brief foray from his ranch at Crawford, Texas, where he is spending August, and where he will meet Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, at a possibly decisive summit in November.

Mr Putin knew what Washington wanted, the President added. "I have made it clear I think that the treaty hampers our ability to keep the peace. Mr Putin is aware of our desires to move beyond the ABM treaty and we will."

The words of Mr Bush, his most forthright yet on the subject, leave scant doubt that whatever the claims to the contrary by senior officials in his administration, November is emerging as a de facto deadline for a deal with the Russians.

At that point, if no understanding is reached, the Americans will need to give the required six months' notice of withdrawal from the treaty to enable serious work on the Alaska testing site to start in the spring. Moscow has indicated that it would view this as a violation of the 1972 pact.