Lugar calls for extension of START-I

MOSCOW, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar called for the extension of the START-I treaty on nuclear missiles at a Moscow roundtable Tuesday.

The treaty, which expires in 2009, was between the United States and the Soviet Union. Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan remain parties to it.

The Indiana Republican also said the United States and Russia should move toward giving up all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Col. Gen. Yevgeny Maslov, a retired Russian army officer, said nuclear weapons stockpiles could get into the hands of terrorists.

"Disarmament is continuing, the Cold War is behind, and we still count arsenals by the thousands," Maslov said.

Lugar said the verification process in START-I must be extended and additional verification procedures written into the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, which presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin signed in 2002.

Lugar is the senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee. He and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., developed the Nunn-Lugar program to assist former Soviet republics in securing their nuclear arsenals.