No Need For Treaty In Space, U.S. Insists

No need for treaty in space, U.S. insists

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...36_wdig14.html

Geneva
2/15/2007

The United States said Tuesday that China's recent anti-satellite missile test had endangered hundreds of satellites and left debris in orbit for a century but repeated its opposition to a new global treaty on space.

Christina Rocca, U.S. ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, said a treaty to prevent a weapons race in space would not have banned China's use of a ground-based missile to destroy a weather satellite Jan. 11.

"Despite the ASAT [anti-satellite] test, we continue to believe that there is no arms race in space and therefore no problem for arms control to solve," Rocca said in a speech to the United Nations-sponsored forum in Geneva. For years, the forum has tried to start global negotiations on treaties to ban production of nuclear-bomb-making fissile material and prevent a weapons race in space.

The United States claims the right to develop weapons for use in space to protect its military and commercial satellites and has ruled out negotiations to limit them, saying an existing 40-year-old treaty is adequate.