Kazakhstan to Get Rid of A-Arms : Accord: The republic agrees to U.S. request. Russia will be left as the only nuclear power in the former Soviet Union.

After months of dickering, the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan agreed Tuesday to give up all the nuclear weapons on its territory, a move that will leave Russia as the only nuclear power among the states of the former Soviet Union.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had argued earlier that his nation should be allowed to keep some long-range nuclear missiles, told President Bush in a White House meeting that he will accede to the U.S. request to get rid of the weapons by the end of the decade.

“Kazakhstan guarantees to carry out the elimination of all types of nuclear weapons, including strategic offensive arms, within the seven-year period provided for in the START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks) treaty,” Bush and Nazarbayev said in a joint statement.

The deal, which Bush and Secretary of State James A. Baker III have been pursuing since December, would eliminate the danger of adding three new nuclear powers to the world map, a major U.S. concern after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

An estimated 350 long-range missiles and 70 long-range bombers with a total of more than 3,000 nuclear warheads were stationed in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus when those countries became independent in December. An additional 7,000 warheads remained under Russian control.

Russia and the three smaller republics agreed to joint control of the nuclear arsenal through the Commonwealth of Independent States. But as disputes among the republics rose, U.S. officials argued that the only way to ensure stable control of the weapons was to confine them all to Russia.

Kazakhstan was the last of the three republics to agree. With Nazarbayev’s statement Tuesday, the way is now clear for a formal agreement committing all four former Soviet republics and the United States to the START treaty, which requires cuts of more than 30% in each side’s arsenal.

That agreement, in turn, will allow the Bush Administration to submit the START agreement to the Senate for ratification. Bush and then-Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed the treaty last year, but the Administration delayed sending it to Capitol Hill because of the uncertainty over who controlled the Soviet nuclear arsenal.

In formal terms, Nazarbayev agreed to sign a “protocol” making Kazakhstan a party to the START pact and to join the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which contains a formal commitment never to acquire atomic weapons.

“We are deeply committed to developing good relations with foreign nations, especially the United States,” Nazarbayev said, speaking in Russian rather than his native Kazakh, at a brief ceremony with Bush in the White House Rose Garden. “The foundation for this is in Kazakhstan’s commitment to follow all international treaties, particularly the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the obligation Kazakhstan assumes not to transfer or sell its nuclear weapons.”

Bush, in turn, gave Nazarbayev a public assurance that the United States will lend its political backing to Kazakhstan’s independence and military security.

“The United States supports your independence,” Bush said. “We believe . . . Kazakhstan’s security is important for stability in Europe and in Asia.

“We welcome President Nazarbayev’s commitment that Kazakhstan will join the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear-weapons state and that it will adhere to the START treaty,” Bush added. “And we’ll continue to work toward a signing of the new START protocol by Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and the United States in the very near future.”

Assistant Secretary of State Thomas M. T. Niles said several “procedural issues” remain to be worked out before the protocol can be signed, but he added that they can probably be resolved in “weeks rather than months.”

Nazarbayev and U.S. officials continued to disagree on one point: The Kazakh president has said that after he eliminates the nuclear weapons now on his territory, he might invite Russia to station some of its missiles in Kazakhstan again, under some form of joint control.

The Administration would prefer that Kazakhstan remain nuclear-free, officials said.

Baker held an additional, previously unscheduled negotiating session with Nazarbayev on Tuesday afternoon, at least partly on that issue, a senior official said.

But other officials said the Administration would not let that problem stand in the way of the overall agreement. One official suggested that the United States could accept Russian weapons in Kazakhstan as long as they were under Russian control, much as the United States has maintained nuclear weapons in Germany.

Bush and Nazarbayev also signed an investment treaty, an agreement on insurance for U.S. investors in Kazakhstan, and a trade agreement granting most-favored-nation status to the Central Asian country--giving its exports easier access to the U.S. market.