11.   Until that strategic balance shifts, the people of Kabul will continue their new daily routines.

12.   A Foreign Ministry spokesman said a U.S. missile defense would endanger the global strategic balance, spark an arms race and obstruct efforts to control the spread of weapons.

13.   A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the system would endanger the global strategic balance, spark an arms race and obstruct efforts to control the spread of weapons.

14.   A three-page joint statement said Russia and France see it as their task to ensure the strategic balance in the post-Cold War world.

15.   Analysts said the deal would give the company better strategic balance.

16.   Both Russia and China warn that the proposed American missile shield would upset the strategic balance and trigger a new global arms race.

17.   Both Russia and China warn that the proposed American missile shield would destabilize strategic balance and trigger a new global arms race.

18.   But Moscow dismisses such threats as hypothetical and says the national missile defense would tilt the strategic balance in the U.S. favor.

19.   But the changing strategic balance may be shaped just as much by decisions made in Tokyo as by those in Washington.

20.   But Russia has strongly opposed the U.S. plans, warning that the deployment of such a system would offset the strategic balance and make other arms control agreements void.