Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia will build up its "striking forces" including nuclear weapons to ensure security if a joint decision on missile defence fails, CNN said Wednesday.

Putin was interviewed by CNN's Larry King for the second time since 2000, shortly after President Dmitry Medvedev warned in his annual address of a possible new round of the arms race if the sides do not agree on the European missile defence shield.

If Russia's proposals on the European system "are met with negative answers only" while additional threats appear, "Russia will have to ensure her own security," Putin said in previewed excerpts of the interview.

"Striking forces" would include "new missile, nuclear technology," he said. "This is not our choice, we do not want that to happen," but this is what will happen "if we do not agree on a joint effort there," Putin said.

The interview will air at 9:00 pm Eastern Time in the United States, or 0500 GMT.

earlier related report

Belarus to eliminate highly enriched uranium stocks by 2012
Astana (AFP) Dec 1, 2010 –

The ex-Soviet state of Belarus on Wednesday announced it would eliminate its stocks of highly-enriched uranium by 2012, following talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Clinton won the pledge from Belarus Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov after talks on the sidelines of the OSCE summit in the Kazakhstan capital Astana.

"Foreign Minister Martynov announced that Belarus has decided to eliminate all of its stocks of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and intends to do so by the next nuclear security summit in 2012," said a joint statement.

"The United States intends to provide technical and financial assistance to support the completion of this effort as expeditiously as possible."

In highly-enriched form, uranium can be used to form the warhead of a nuclear bomb and there have been fears over the security of the stocks held by ex-Soviet states like Belarus.

Clinton was quoted as praising the decision "as a sign of progress in efforts to advance nuclear security and nonproliferation" and said Belarus would be invited to the 2012 nuclear security summit in South Korea.

Belarus' strongman President Alexander Lukashenko had been quoted as saying earlier this year that the country had hundreds of kilogrammes of highly-enriched uranium and had no intention of eliminating it.

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