31.   All of this could increase U.S. leverage with both sides -- leverage that should be used to press for curbs on nuclear arms.

32.   Both President Bush and Russian President Vladmir Putin have generally endorsed the concept of nuclear arms reduction.

33.   Both sides would retain countless thousands of smaller tactical nuclear arms.

34.   Bush announced last May that he would cut nuclear arms.

35.   Bush is to travel later Thursday to Moscow, where he plans to sign a landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

36.   Business-as-usual was the mood the two presidents were trying to convey in their remarks after signing a milestone agreement on nuclear arms cuts.

37.   But a secret federal document made public last week reveals that the weapon experts are also hard at work on new or modified designs for nuclear arms.

38.   Bush was in St. Petersburg with Putin on Saturday in the middle of a three-day summit focused on nuclear arms reductions between the former Cold War foes.

39.   But can we say objectively, in a way that will convince those abroad, that Japan will never acquire nuclear arms under any circumstance?

40.   But critics say it will also leave the two sides without a solid legal undertaking on nuclear arms that would outlast the Bush and Putin administrations.