WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) - U.S.-Russia arms talks took an unexpected bound forward on Sunday, when Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush agreed to link missile defence systems to cuts in nuclear arsenals in a bid to strike a new strategic pact.
The pledge, made after a Group of Eight big power summit in Genoa, Italy, signals a shift in U.S. policy on negotiating mutual arms cuts. And it suggests Russia has not yet shut the door on Bush's dream of deploying an anti-missile shield.
"What was unexpected for me, and President Bush as well, was the understanding that was reached today between us that offensive arms and the issue of defensive arms will be discussed as a set,'' Putin told a packed press conference.
Senior U.S. senators from both major parties praised the agreement. Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, appearing on CNN's Late Edition, both welcomed the unexpected diplomatic breakthrough, made after a Group of Eight big power summit in Genoa, Italy.
Biden said the agreement ``implies'' Bush would not abrogate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, as Pentagon officials have suggested.
"This is very good news to me,'' said Biden, of Delaware. ``This implies at least to me that ... this administration will not break out of the ABM treaty in the meantime.''
"You don't walk away from a treaty without a new system being in place,'' Biden said.
In a separate television appearance, Senate Republican leader Trent Lott of Mississippi applauded the Bush-Putin agreement. ``I think it's a very big deal. ... Tying these two together is a surprise,'' Lott said on CBS television's ``Face the Nation.''
"You are talking about further reducing nuclear weapons that are aimed at each other and thinking about the future in a more defensive way. That's big,'' said Lott.
But Biden said the agreement appears to contradict previous statements by Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who have said the United States might abrogate the treaty within a matter of months.
Missile defense has been a thorny issue ever since Bush assumed the presidency in January. U.S. officials had dismissed talk of the two leaders reaching any "grand bargain'' on arms issues during Sunday's meeting.
"As usual on this issue there is not a clear message coming forth'' from the administration, Biden said.
Hagel, of Nebraska, denied there was any mixed message coming from the White House. ``I think it's very consistent with what we have seen and heard from this administration,'' Hagel said.
Bush wants to deploy a $60 billion system to shoot down missiles from so-called rogue states like North Korea, Iran and Iraq. Russia says missile defense would upset the strategic balance and trigger a new arms race that could suck in China.
The two men, speaking after their second meeting in a little over a month, said it was too early to say how deep the cuts in intercontinental ballistic missiles would go.
The U.S. leader said his top national security adviser Condoleezza Rice would visit Moscow soon to thrash out with top Russian officials a timetable for further talks. Russian officials last week accused Washington of foot-dragging over the issue.
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