Barak reassures U.S. on eve of trip to Moscow

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ehud Barak has pledged to the Clinton administration that he will coordinate with Washington any improvement in Israel's ties with Russia.

Officials said the pledge came in advance of Barak's trip to Moscow on Monday, the first by the prime minister to Russia. Barak is expected to meet with his counterpart, Sergei Stepashin, as well as other senior ministers.

Barak, the officials said, has told the White House that he will not pursue the policies of his predecessor, Binyamin Netanyahu and his then-foreign minister, Ariel Sharon. The officials said the Clinton administration was dismayed by Sharon's expressed opposition to the NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia and efforts to bolster defense cooperation with Moscow.

"What Barak is doing is going to Russia to brief Russia not to coordinate with it, to keep it in the picture," Internal Security Minister Shlomo Ben Ami said.

The new prime minister will instead coordinate with Washington Israel's relations with Moscow, the officials said. They said Netanyahu's government had sought to exploit its relations with Russia as a way to halt progress in the Middle East peace process.

But officials stressed that they want to strengthen relations with Russia. They said Barak will focus his talks on Moscow's transfer of missile and nuclear technology to Iran as well as Russia's plans to sell weapons to Syria.

For his part, Sharon said he hoped Barak would continue the Russian policy of the Netanyahu government. "We had discussions and used all of our influence to lessen the technology and weapons and aid to Syria and Iran," he said. "We did this in coordination with the United States."

Barak told his Cabinet on Sunday that the focus of his talks will be Russia's transfer of nonconventional weapons technology to Iran. Cabinet sources quoted Barak as saying that he was not satisfied with the efforts over the last two years to halt the flow of Russian equipment and expertise to Teheran.