RUSSIA and the US made progress yesterday on mapping out a common position on a global nuclear test ban, but are still divided over the US led plan to expand Nato into eastern Europe.
Meanwhile in Chechnya there were reports of fierce fighting, with 28 Russian soldiers killed and 86 injured in clashes with rebel separatists.
We made enormous progress today. Both nations endorsed a truly comprehensive test ban," the US Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, said after meeting the Russian Foreign Minister Mr Yevgeny Primakov.
A senior US official said Washington and Moscow were close to agreeing on a common path for adhering to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Further discussion was needed, but the two sides hoped to present their joint position at the nuclear safety conference in Moscow on April 19th and 20th. The conference will be attended by the leaders of the G7 group of industrialised countries.
In a separate development, France, Britain and the US all confirmed yesterday that they would sign the Rarotonga Treaty establishing a nuclear free zone in the South Pacific on Monday.
In Moscow Mr Christopher also reported "substantial progress" on unresolved problems over the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, which sets force levels that Russia has been unable to meet in the Caucasus region and in northern Russia.
However Mr Primakov stressed that there was no change in the dispute over US led plans to give Nato membership to former Warsaw Pact countries, such as Hungary and Poland.
Russia will never accept Nato enlargement, Mr Primakov said. "It will not accept a worsening of the geopolitical situation and it will stand by its interests."
Earlier, Mr Christopher and President Yeltsin discussed current questions of Russian US relations, including the joint operations of Russia and the United States in regulating the conflict in Bosnia and supporting peace in the Middle East the Kremlin said.
Mr Christopher also met other Russian political leaders, including the Communist Party leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov. However the ultra nationalist leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Mr Valdimir Zhirinovsky, was not invited.
In Chechnya, Russian forces continued yesterday to pursue their offensive into the south west of the breakaway republic, besieging two new villages and releasing only women and children.
The Russians, battling rebels holed up in a disused Soviet missile base, used planes and artillery in a day of heavy fighting and Russian news agencies reported many casualties. Moscow could not update a death toll from early in the day, when military officials said 28 soldiers had been killed and 86 wounded in the 24 bouts up to yesterday morning.