The secretary also hesitated over further naval disarmament because of the Manchurian crisis; in particular he worried whether the navy possessed enough carriers for possible action in the Far East.

Under the Harding administration, the Washington Naval Conference of 1922 achieved significant naval disarmament for ten years.

Leading up to the First World War he argued that Britain should adopt a more sympathetic approach towards Germany, including naval disarmament.

Mr Bush's clear determination to continue with America's global role added force to his blunt rejection of Gorbachev's call for naval nuclear disarmament.

Diplomats say there are several reasons countries like Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Canada are pushing for a less rigid stand on naval disarmament.

It also objected to a Soviet attempt to give priority to naval disarmament.

Commonwealth delegates convinced America to invite several nations to Washington to participate in talks regarding Pacific and Far East policies, specifically naval disarmament.

In the 1920s, the United States followed an independent course, and succeeded in a program of naval disarmament, and refunding the German economy.

In recent years, the Soviet Union has repeatedly called for some measure of naval disarmament by NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

American officials interpreted today's Soviet call for an open-seas agreement as another attempt to get naval disarmament onto the East-West agenda through the open-skies negotiations.