START treaty ratification possible, says US Senator Kerry

It should be possible to get approval in the US Senate for a key nuclear weapons control treaty with Russia despite the body's political polarization, the head of the Senate's Foreign Relation Committee said Saturday.

Senator John Kerry told the Munich Security Conference that, from what he knows of the successor to the START I (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) weapons reduction treaty - still being negotiated by US and Russian officials - he thinks he can get it through the Senate.

Sixty-seven votes are required in the Senate for treaty passage. US Democrats recently lost their super-majority of 60 votes in the body and there is wide speculation about whether they will be able to push through their agenda without 60 votes, to say nothing of a measure that requires two-thirds of the Senate.

But Kerry said a question like nuclear nonproliferation does not hinge on partisan backgrounds.

"I think we can ratify START," said Kerry. "When you need 67 votes, you only ratify it because it's in the national interest."

A previous attempt to draft a successor START treaty, signed in 1993, fell apart when the US Senate failed to ratify it. The START treaty expired in December.

A major reason for the failure of the last treaty attempt was Russia's objections to US pursuit of a missile defence system.