1.  A formal decision on whether to proceed with antimissile defenses is to be made by next summer, based on technical, economic and arms control considerations.

2.  Administration officials say the Russians may be posturing in the hope of undermining public support for antimissile defenses in the United States.

3.  But that is just the risk that Bush takes by emphasizing the immediate development of a robust antimissile defense.

4.  But the Russians have been concerned that an American antimissile defense would give Washington nuclear superiority, and have strenuously opposed the move.

5.  Dole is far more committed to antimissile defenses than is Clinton.

6.  For example, multiple re-entry vehicles make it easier for the P.R.C. to deploy penetration aids with its ICBM warheads in order to defeat antimissile defenses.

7.  If it is eventually deployed, the system would apparently be the first antimissile defense of any kind based on lasers.

8.  In a news conference Tuesday at the Kremlin, Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov left open the possibility that antimissile defenses might eventually be needed to protect American territory.

9.  Last week the president set out his new thinking on nuclear weapons and antimissile defenses.

10.  Nor do power-plant scrubbers or space stations or antimissile defenses -- all of which drain resources from other productive activities when the economy is booming.