国际英语新闻：Obama redoubles efforts to push for Senate passage of nuke treaty with Russia

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- In his latest efforts to push for passage of the arms reduction treaty with Russia this year in the Senate, U.S. President Barack Obama has appealed to the U.S. public and foreign leaders for support in the last two days.

The president's weekly address focuses on domestic issues, but on Saturday he touched on the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) he signed in April with Russian President Dmitry Medevedev to replace the 1991 START treaty which expired in December last year.

"Today, I'd like to speak with you about an issue that is fundamental to America's national security: the need for the Senate to approve the new START treaty this year," Obama said, repeating a refrain echoed oftentimes these days by himself and other high-ranking officials.

"This treaty is rooted in a practice that dates back to (former president) Ronald Reagan. The idea is simple: as the two nations with over 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons, the United States and Russia have a responsibility to work together to reduce our arsenals," he said.

The treaty stipulates that the number of nuclear warheads be reduced to 1,550 on each side over seven years, while the number of delivery vehicles, both deployed and non-deployed, must not exceed 800. It also sets out rules for verification and monitoring of the nuclear arsenals on both sides.

"And to ensure that our national security is protected, the United States has an interest in tracking Russia's nuclear arsenal through a verification effort that puts U.S. inspectors on the ground, as President Reagan said when he signed a nuclear arms treaty with the Soviet Union in 1987, 'Trust, but verify,'" Obama said in his weekly address.

The new START treaty is seen as a major achievement of the Obama administration in foreign relations and part of its efforts to reset relations with Russia.

The pact sets the stage for further arms reductions, as its preamble states that the U.S. and Russia see the new START as providing new impetus to the step-by-step process of reducing and limiting nuclear arms, with a view to expanding this process in the future to a multilateral approach.

Obama reiterated to Medevedev last Sunday that it is a "top priority" of his administration to get the U.S. Senate to ratify the new START pact.

"The treaty also helped us reset our relations with Russia, which led to concrete benefits," Obama told his American audience. "For instance, Russia has been indispensable to our efforts to enforce strong sanctions on Iran, to secure loose nuclear material from terrorists, and to equip our troops in Afghanistan."

Some Republican senators have not only asked to review the new pact, but also have sought access to the negotiating record to get clarity on whether the treaty would limit U.S. missile defense programs and more money for maintaining the nuclear weapons stockpile and modernizing the production complex.

Obama has promised an extra 4.1 billion dollars in addition to an existing 80 billion dollar over 10 years for the modernization of the country's nuclear weapons complex. In his weekly address, he said 18 hearings have been held in the Senate to answer nearly 1,000 questions relating to the pact in the past six months.