ASHINGTON - Less than two weeks before a US-Russia summit on nuclear arms, George W. Bush yesterday called for a ''new era of nuclear security,'' laying out a defense policy that would unilaterally cut the US nuclear arsenal and create a missile-defense shield.
The Republican presidential candidate, in his most explicit remarks on nuclear arms to date, said the country's nuclear weapons should be reduced to its ''lowest possible number consistent with our national security,'' but did not specify an amount. Such a stance puts Bush at odds with some conservative Republicans who oppose cutting the US arsenal.
Under the agreement with Russia known as START II, the United States will reduce the number of strategic nuclear warheads from 7,200 to between 3,000 and 3,500 by the year 2007. An agreement still in negotiation, known as START III, would cut them by another 1,000.
But a senior Bush adviser said the Texas governor hopes to scale back the nuclear arsenal regardless of what Russia does. Criticizing the Clinton administration for remaining ''locked in a Cold War mentality,'' Bush said the United States ''should not keep weapons that our military planners do not need.''
''These unneeded weapons are the expensive relics of dead conflicts, and they do nothing to make us more secure,'' he said.
Instead, Bush reiterated his support for a national missile-defense system to protect against attack from ''rogue states'' such as North Korea or Iran.
Such a defense shield - a popular concept among many Republicans in Congress - is under consideration at the White House. Yet scientists have been unable to prove a missile defense system is technically feasible. Even Bush foreign policy adviser Condoleeza Rice yesterday admitted the technology was not fully available, saying Bush's role would be to ''give people the energy and resources to pursue that goal.''
''There is enough evidence out there ... that he is quite confident that we can build something that works,'' Rice said.
Bush also did not address how he proposed to pay for the system, beyond citing projections of a $4 trillion budget surplus over the next decade. He did say he expected US allies to take part in such a program, and hoped any national missile defense would also protect US allies, including Europe and Israel.
Campaign aides to Vice President Al Gore pounced on the proposal. ''Bush's agenda is irresponsible and shows he lacks the depth of experience to keep America safe and secure,'' spokesman Douglas Hattaway said.
The criticism came after two days of sparring over foreign policy matters in the 2000 presidential race, with each candidate trying to cast his opponent as unfit for the role of diplomat-in-chief.
On Monday, Bush addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, promising to promote Israeli concerns and endorsing a central Israeli request, that the United States move its embassy from Tel Aviv to ''the city Israel has chosen as its capital,'' which is Jerusalem.
Bush also criticized the Clinton administration's involvement in the last Israeli elections, saying ''America should not interfere in Israel's democratic process.''
And yesterday, Gore used an address to the same pro-Israel group to criticize the foreign policy of Bush's father, former President George Bush. In language strikingly similar to what the Texas governor used the day before, Gore accused the former president of trying to control Israel from abroad.
''In 1991, I vividly remember standing up against a group of administration foreign policy advisers who promoted the insulting concept of linkage, which tried to use loan guarantees as a stick to bully Israel. I stood with you and together we defeated them. We stopped them,'' Gore said.
Across town, Bush moved on to the topic of nuclear disarmament in a news conference at the National Press Club.
Standing against a backdrop of American flags and Republican foreign policy luminaries - including former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Colin Powell, former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft - Bush seemed determined to prove his capability in foreign affairs.
Bush accused the White House of ''driving toward a hasty decision, on a political timetable'' in trying to solidify an arms-reduction treaty with Russia.
Russia has opposed renegotiating the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, known as ABM, to allow for a missile shield. Clinton is expected to discuss the treaty during his June meeting with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, following a request from Russia to further reduce the nuclear weapons level to as low as 1,500 warheads.
Yesterday, Bush urged Clinton not to agree to any deal that would bar a national missile defense, saying ''no decision would be better than a flawed agreement that ties the hands of the next president.''
