The White House and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blasted one of the Republican tactics: A plan to force the entire treaty to be read aloud, burning at least one workday in an effort to delay the accord until next year.

"Every day we delay is another day it is easier for terrorists to get their hands on a nuclear weapon," said Reid spokesman Jim Manley. "It is time for Republicans to put our security before political games."

Obama has made the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) a lynchpin of his drive to "reset" relations with Moscow, and called for passage this year in what would be a signal diplomatic victory six weeks after an elections rout.

Democrats control 58 seats and need nine of the 42 Republicans to reach the 67 votes needed for ratification, but will need 14 Republicans when a new Congress convenes in January that reflects the November 2 ballot results.

With the Senate due to launch debate at 2:15 pm (1915 GMT), just three Republicans have said publicly to date that they will back the treaty, though others have signalled that they will ultimately vote in favor of it.

Republicans -- led by their number-two, Senator Jon Kyl -- have vowed to block ratification in 2010 and planned to force potentially politically painful votes on "treaty-killer" amendments that stood virtually no chance of passing.

In one such gambit, Republicans were to push to modify the treaty's non-binding preamble to strike language tying offensive nuclear weapons to defensive systems, an unmistakable reference to US missile defense plans.

"START's preamble specifically places limits on missile defense and weakens the ability of the United States to defend itself," said Republican Senator John Barrasso, author of an amendment to strip out that language.

"Since the administration claims the preamble language is non-binding, they should have no problem eliminating this restrictive language from the treaty," he said in a statement.

But the Pentagon has said the preamble and treaty overall impose no missile defense limitations, and arms control experts warn changing the preamble would force the accord back to the negotiating table, effectively killing it.

Republicans were all-but-certain to fail in their quest to rally the 51 votes needed in the 100-seat Senate to amend the treaty, which Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed in April.

But Republican Senator Jim DeMint planned to require that the entire accord be read aloud on on the Senate floor, a procedural step usually waived, his office said.

"Americans didn't vote in November to ram through Obama's agenda in December," said DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton, who denounced "a desperate last-minute rush by politicians thrown out of office."

Denton called for putting off START -- "a treaty that could weaken national security" -- until after January when newly elected senators take office.

"This is a new low in putting political stunts ahead of our national security, and it is exactly the kind of Washington game-playing that the American people are sick of," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

The agreement -- which has the support of virtually every present and former US foreign policy or national security heavyweight -- restricts each nation to a maximum of 1,550 deployed warheads, a cut of about 30 percent from a limit set in 2002, and 800 launchers and bombers.

The agreement, which has broad American public support, would also return US inspectors who have been unable to monitor Russia's arsenal since the agreement's predecessor lapsed in December 2009.

The White House has addressed Republican worries about funding the upkeep of the US nuclear arsenal by budgeting some 84.1 billion dollars over ten years for modernization and maintenance.

Reid predicted on Tuesday that the accord would be ratified this year.

The Russian lower house of parliament, the State Duma, has indicated it will ratify the treaty only after its ratification by the US Senate.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News