Leaders of the US Congress -- including critics of the planned missile shield -- who met with Bush at the White House said afterwards they would back efforts to replace the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty as long as the United States did not abrogate or violate the pact before reaching a deal.

"I was positively impressed by what I believe to be the president's understanding to keep Russia close," said Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, head of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.

Both Biden and Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Bush would keep congressional backing as long as he resists pressure to act against the treaty without first striking a deal with Moscow.

US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was in Moscow Wednesday to launch a round of security talks agreed to Sunday by Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin at last weekend's Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italy. The two presidents agreed to link negotiations over missile defense with mutual reductions in nuclear weapons -- a position Washington had previously refused to take.

The Pentagon has proposed a series of missile defense tests officials have said may come into conflict with the ABM treaty as early as February. And Bush has said he will push ahead on his missile defense plan whether or not Moscow agrees to scrap the treaty.

Bush's position drew strong criticism Wednesday from the leader of the Senate's Democratic majority.

"I don't know that we can be in a position to be dictatorial as we go into these negotiations," Senator Tom Daschle said. "I also think it would be a tremendous mistake for us to unilaterally pull out of the ABM treaty, as I understand is now being contemplated."

But Biden and Levin took a softer tone after meeting Bush, saying the president seemed receptive to their concerns, despite pressure to act unilaterally.

"We are so far from being able to have a system that's deployable," Biden said.

"I just hope that there's a measured process that's underway."

Administration officials and supporters of missile defense in Congress have lobbied hard to win public support for Bush's missile defense plans, saying opposition could give Moscow the mistaken impression it can veto them.

"The unintended consequence of such action could be to rule out a cooperative solution and leave the president no choice but to walk away from the treaty unilaterally," Douglas Feith, the new undersecretary of defense for policy, said Tuesday.

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Moscow Talks July 26, 2001