In Asia, Obama, Medvedev see nuclear pact progress

SINGAPORE – Seeking to claim progress during an economic summit with Pacific nations, President Barack Obama on Sunday declared the United States and Russia would have a replacement treaty on nuclear arms cuts in place by the end of the year.

A climate change treaty, however, proved more illusive.

Meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced the former Cold War enemies were making good progress in negotiations on an updated pact to replace the START agreement that expires on Dec. 5.

In a similar meeting on the fringes of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, Obama and other leaders confirmed what had been obvious for some time: Next month's much-anticipated climate change summit would not produce a treaty to curb global warming.

It was a reality check for the first-term U.S. president on his first tour of Asia since taking office 10 months ago.

Sitting, gesturing and leaning toward his Russian counterpart, Obama said the pair discussed a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and described "excellent progress over the last several months."

"I'm confident that if we work hard and with a sense of urgency, we'll be able to get that done," Obama said, adding technical issues remain.

Medvedev said he hoped the two countries negotiators would "finalize the text of the document by December." He also referenced technical issues that need to be hammered out.

Obama and Medvedev agreed in April to reach a new nuclear arms reduction treaty to replace and expand upon the expiring 1991 pact signed by former President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev.

During a July summit in Moscow, they further agreed to cut the number of nuclear warheads each nation possesses to between 1,500 and 1,675 within seven years.

U.S. officials say the two nations now have agreed on the broad outlines of a new treaty, which could be signed during Obama's travels to Europe in early December to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yet it wasn't clear Obama would use that trip to Europe to visit Copenhagen and push for a climate change proposal that now appears more of an interim gathering to reach a political commitment among the 192-nations slated to join the meeting.

The Copenhagen session begins three weeks hence and was originally intended to produce a new treaty on limiting heat-trapping gasses. Hopes had dimmed lately, however, and Sunday's events here snuffed out any remaining expectations for the December summit.

"There was an assessment by the leaders that it is unrealistic to expect a full internationally, legally binding agreement could be negotiated between now and Copenhagen which starts in 22 days," said Michael Froman, Obama's deputy national security adviser for international economic matters.

The prime minister of Denmark, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, the U.N.-sponsored climate conference's chairman, flew overnight to Singapore to present a proposal to the leaders to instead make the Copenhagen goal a matter of crafting a "politically binding" agreement, in hopes of breathing life into the struggling process.

A fully binding legal agreement would be left to a second meeting next year in Mexico City, Froman said.

Obama backed the approach, cautioning the group not to let the "perfect be the enemy of the good," Froman said. Addressing the APEC forum later, Obama talked of the need to limit greenhouse-gas emissions "in Copenhagen and beyond."

A major bill dealing with energy and climate in the U.S. Senate, a domestic priority of Obama's, is bogged down in the U.S. Senate with scant hope of completion by next month. That would leave Obama little t show in Copenhagen, and it's now unclear whether he will make the trip.