Visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage sounded out Russia's readiness Wednesday to cooperate with US plans to launch reprisal strikes on suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan.
Armitage, the second senior US official to visit Moscow this week, met behind closed doors with First Deputy Prime Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov, who formerly headed Russia's foreign intelligence service.
The talks came only hours before Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was due to meet his US counterpart Colin Powell in Washington as the United states accelerated its diplomatic drive to forge an anti-terrorism coalition.
Russia has expressed readiness to share intelligence information about the possible location of Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in last week's attacks on the United States who is suspected to be hiding in Afghanistan.
However the precise extent of Russia's cooperation remains unclear.
Moscow has stressed that it will not take part in any attacks and is not willing to open former Soviet bases to US troops for such a campaign.
On Monday, US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton argued that Russia "had not ruled anything in or anything out" with regard to the campaign, while the US ambassador to Moscow expressed optimism that the two sides could work together.
"Our two nations will find enough fields in which we could cooperate," ITAR-TASS quoted ambassador Alexander Vershbow as saying Wednesday.
Of the three former Soviet republics bordering Afghanistan, only Uzbekistan has expressed readiness to host US troops.
Russian Security Council chief Vladimir Rushailo was in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent on Wednesday to sound out the Uzbek position.
Tajikistan, fearing an influx of Afghan refugees, has taken a more cautious line, while the isolationist republic of Turkmenistan has maintained a neutral stance -- MOSCOW (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
