Russia to Scale Back Missile Technology Sale to India : Accord: In return, U.S. will begin talks on commercial ventures in space with Moscow.

In a concession that could slow the spread of advanced weaponry around the world, Russia has agreed to a U.S. request to scale back a sale of missile technology to India and sign an international agreement restricting future sales, State Department officials said Friday.

The agreement, reached late Thursday night after months of sometimes acrimonious negotiations, means that Russia will formally join the Missile Technology Control Regime, a pact of 18 Western nations that prohibits members from exporting technology that could be used to build nuclear missiles.

“It is . . . a very important step,” said Lynn Davis, undersecretary of state for international security affairs, who led the U.S. negotiating team. “We are building a foundation of cooperation between our two governments.”

As a result of the deal, she said, the United States will open talks with Russia on commercial cooperation in space, discussions that the Clinton Administration halted because of its concerns about the missile sale to India.

Russia, strapped for cash, has sought to earn money by selling its vaunted military weapons and technology abroad, from submarines for Iran to fighter jets for China and missiles for India. The Clinton Administration has not formally objected to most of the sales, in part because officials say Russia’s need for export income is so great.

But in the case of the missile sale, the United States protested strongly, because India has built its own nuclear weapons, is locked in a dangerous confrontation with neighboring Pakistan and has shown little willingness to limit its development of weapons of mass destruction.

The sale in question was an estimated $350-million contract for liquid-nitrogen-fueled rocket engines, plus technology and training to help India build similar engines itself, officials said.

India said it plans to use the engines for rockets to launch weather and communications satellites, but U.S. officials have been skeptical.

The George Bush Administration reacted to the initial contract in 1992 by imposing sanctions on the Russian and Indian space organizations that barred them from receiving any U.S. equipment or making any sales in the United States.

The Clinton Administration threatened last month to apply more sanctions if the Indian deal went ahead. But it offered Russia the prospect of “billions” in potential contracts with the United States, including a chance to launch U.S. commercial satellites on Russian rockets, if the deal were stopped, officials said.

As a result of the new agreement, Vice President Al Gore will invite Russian Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin to hold talks on space cooperation, a meeting that had been postponed because of the dispute.

Under the agreement concluded this week, Russia will “freeze” the sale to India and renegotiate the contract to bring it within the limits of the Missile Technology Control Regime, Davis said.

Russia may still ship some rocket engines to India, but it will not transfer the know-how and equipment that would enable India to apply the technology widely to military purposes, she said.

Another official said the engines are only a small part of the contract, and might sell for only $2 million or $3 million each without the accompanying technology.

At the same time, Davis said, the Russians agreed to bring their export controls into compliance with the missile technology pact to seek membership in the group by Nov. 1.

Some U.S. officials have charged privately that Russia has already transferred significant missile technology to India, but Davis denied that.

In other developments, U.S. officials said they hope their talks with North Korea on the Asian country’s nuclear research program will show results next week.

North Korean negotiators “brought some new ideas” to the talks in Geneva this week, a senior U.S. official said, leading to “a change in the tenor” of the discussion.

The United States wants North Korea to allow U.N. inspectors to investigate evidence of nuclear weapons development. North Korea denies that it is working on nuclear arms, but has refused to allow the inspectors to look at the research facilities in question.

Friday morning, U.S. and North Korean negotiators said they planned to make a “substantive” announcement Monday, signaling a probable agreement. But they later amended that, saying they did not know whether any announcement would be ready.