The stakes of the impending fight go beyond the medium-range missile accord.

The foreign ministers have also been discussing arms control priorities after a new missile accord.

Under United States law, trade sanctions must be applied against companies that violate the missile accord.

But he said he would be delighted if the missile accord could be signed even without a summit conference.

How can General Rogers accuse the Administration of haste regarding the missile accord?

One issue is the wisdom of dividing up among different agencies the organizations that will be used to monitor the new missile accord.

A senior Bush administration official said the Clinton administration had been too generous in trying to secure a missile accord.

Meanwhile, the White House official called on critics of the intermediate missile accord, mostly conservatives, to "hold their fire" until they read it.

The issue of interpretation is the only serious dispute remaining before a final vote on the missile accord.

The longer-term political question is whether the Administration can close ranks as it goes into the home stretch in negotiating a new missile accord.