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US Senate rejects CTBT

The US Senate has refused to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, delivering President Bill Clinton a stinging defeat on a pact he had made a centrepiece of his second-term foreign policy.

The 48-51 vote, with one law-maker voting 'present', went primarily along party lines, with all but four of Senate's 55Republicans voting against the pact and Clinton's Democrats supporting it. Ratification would have required a two-thirds majority, or 67 votes, in favour.

The political spectacle of the past two weeks is a major embarrassment for Clinton. He had been forced to request a delay in the vote after Republicans surprised the White House by moving quickly for a vote, knowing the pact would be defeated.

Rejection came hours after Democrats failed in a test vote that would have postponed formal action, and after intensive negotiations among leaders of both parties that failed to broker a deal to postpone the final vote.

''My feeling now is the right thing to do is defeat this treaty,'' majority leader Trent Lott told reporters after his talks with Democrat leader Tom Daschle broke off.

Daschle blamed the failure on a small group of conservative Republicans who opposed the treaty and were determined to deliver Clinton a political defeat.

Following the vote, Lott said the Senate had performed its 'important quality-control function' in rejecting a 'flawed' treaty.

''The founding fathers never conceived that the Senate would become a rubber stamp for a flawed treaty,'' Lott said. ''We will reject bad treaties when it's in the interest of our country and our allies.''

Lott said he had written to Defence Secretary William Cohen requesting a comprehensive review of the state of the US nuclear arsenal.

Clinton was the first world leader to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996. He was followed by 154 countries, although only 25 of the 44 countries considered capable of producing nuclear weapons have ratified the pact.

The treaty would ban nuclear testing and provide for international on-site inspections to verify compliance. Clinton had made it a cornerstone of his efforts to stem the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The United States implemented a unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing in 1992, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the Clinton administration would honour that policy even if the treaty is rejected.

Opponents argued that banning testing would prevent the US from monitoring the safety and reliability of its own nuclear arsenal. They also said the treaty would not prevent 'rogue' states such as Iraq from developing nuclear weapons if they were determined to do so.

Treaty supporters said rejecting the pact would forfeit US leverage on countries such as Iraq and North Korea to halt weapons development. They also cited Tuesday's military coup in Pakistan, which first tested nuclear weapons last year, as evidence that further international safeguards are needed.

UNI

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