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Last Updated: Sep 8, 2008 - 9:06:04 AM |
Her comment increased speculation that U.S. President George W. Bush is
planning to punish Moscow for invading Georgia by canceling the
agreement. Such a move is being planned, according to senior Bush
administration officials, but is not yet final.
"The time isn't right for the Russia agreement," Rice told reporters
while flying from Tunisia to Algeria during a visit to North Africa.
"We'll be making an announcement about that later."
A U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said Friday that he did not know the exact timing of the announcement
but that "It's probably going to happen next week."
"We made very clear that Russia's behavior has to be condemned, and
there have to be consequences that flow from what it's done in
Georgia," the State Department official said. "This will be an example
of that."
U.S.-Russian relations have cooled considerably since last month's
military standoff between Russia and Georgia and Moscow's subsequent
recognition of independence for Georgia's breakaway republics of South
Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The nuclear cooperation agreement was signed by the United States and
Russia in May and sent by Bush to Congress, which can still disapprove
of the pact. Bush or his successor, who takes office in January, could
later decide to resubmit the deal to Congress.
The agreement would give the United States access to modern Russian
nuclear technology and clear the way for Russia to establish itself as
a lucrative center for the import and storage of spent nuclear fuel
from American-supplied reactors around the world.
Such a deal was seen as crucial to boosting relations with Russia and
to fulfilling Bush's vision of increasing civilian nuclear energy use
worldwide as a way to combat rising energy demands and climate change.
Withdrawing the agreement from Congress would likely have little
effect. The deal probably would not have been approved before Bush's
term ends and key U.S. lawmakers have said the accord is probably dead
anyway in the wake of the war over South Ossetia.
But pulling it would send a message to Russia that its actions in
Georgia are not acceptable and will not go unanswered.
The nuclear pact would have gone into force if Congress did not pass a
joint resolution of disapproval or adjourned for the year before
lawmakers had 90 legislative days to review it.
Some members of Congress were already troubled by the nuclear pact even
before Russia and Georgia went to war last month. They said they did
not trust Russia enough to expand nuclear cooperation because it
supplied fuel to Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant. Washington
believes Iran harbors ambitions to build a nuclear bomb
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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