OTTAWA (Reuters) - The United States is pressing its key partners to sign on to a new $20 billion plan to speed up nuclear nonproliferation projects in Russia in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and thereby prevent hostile groups from obtaining weapons-grade material, diplomats said.
But they said some members of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations feared Washington might be moving too quickly with its ``10 plus 10 over 10'' plan, under which the United States would give $10 billion while the rest of the G7 would also come up with $10 billion over 10 years.
Washington, which has already committed around $1 billion next year under existing programs to help Russia decommission the vast former Soviet nuclear arsenal, is determined to prevent al Qaeda and other organizations from taking advantage of leaky security at Russian atomic sites, the diplomats said.
``This is a very ambitious nonproliferation plan. I think Sept. 11 focused people's attention as to how great the dangers of nuclear proliferation are,'' one G7 diplomat told Reuters.
Details of the plan have yet to be worked out but it is designed to boost efforts to help Moscow deal with the 30,000 nuclear weapons and the highly enriched uranium and plutonium stocks it inherited when the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991.
Last year, a bipartisan U.S. task force said the need to secure Russian nuclear weapons, materials and scientific knowledge was ``the most urgent unmet national security threat to the United States''.
U.S. officials first put forward Washington's new plan in mid-April and are determined that it should be formally announced at a summit of leaders of the Group of Eight nations -- the G7 plus Russia -- in the Canadian Rocky Mountain resort of Kananaskis in late June.
The focus on nonproliferation intensified with the announcement by President Bush that he planned to sign a treaty with Russia this week under which the two nations would cut their nuclear warheads by the year 2012 to around 2,000 from current levels of 5,000 to 6,000.
MIXED VIEWS WITHIN G7
Diplomats said G7 nations were of three minds about the new U.S. plan -- Germany and Canada supported it fully; Britain and France liked the concept but wanted more details; while Italy and Japan were less enthusiastic, in part because of the cost but also because of widespread corruption in Russia.
"People feel there is enough money going to the Russians to fund nonproliferation efforts as it is and they aren't spending all of it. If we give them even more, it won't be that effective,'' said another G7 diplomat.
U.S. officials are now suggesting that instead of handing over billions of dollars to Russia, G7 countries could forgive some of their Soviet-era debt on the understanding that Moscow spent an equivalent sum on nonproliferation efforts.
One North American security source familiar with the 10 plus 10 over 10 plan said Washington was unhappy with how little other G7 nations had contributed to programs designed to neutralize the dangers posed by Russian nuclear material.
"Everybody recognizes that given the threat we have now of terrorists getting their hands on some of these weapons of mass destruction that we really need to accelerate the programs. The Bush administration believes this cannot be done unless we get more money into them,'' the source told Reuters.
Experts say the new plan might focus on decommissioning some older Soviet-era nuclear power stations as well as constructing a mixed-oxide plant which would turn weapons-grade plutonium into fuel suitable for use in civilian reactors.
But one non-U.S. diplomat said Moscow would have to be consulted properly about the new proposals.
``You can't tell the Russians 'Here's a check, now do this and this'. That just isn't possible,'' the diplomat said.
Under the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, named for its two principal sponsors in the Senate, Washington has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to former Soviet states since 1991 to protect and dispose of nuclear materials.
The money is designed to help scrap those Russian missiles, bombers and submarines designated for destruction under arms reduction treaties as well as accounting for and safely storing dangerous byproducts, including nuclear warheads.
But while G7 nations do not doubt the sincerity of Washington's efforts to step up nonproliferation efforts, they worry that it could blunt the new initiative by moving too quickly to produce a plan for the leaders' summit in Canada.
"There are lots of questions still hanging over this one but the Americans are absolutely determined that an announcement be made in Kananaskis,'' said one diplomat.
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