DENVER — Sen. John McCain attempted to distance himself from the Bush administration Tuesday on one of the most contentious foreign policy issues besides Iraq, saying he would work more closely with Russia on nuclear disarmament and would ax plans for a nuclear weapon once coveted by the current president.
McCain's advisors characterized his speech on nuclear security policy as a "significant departure" from President Bush's policies, and it did embrace several initiatives that have been touted by moderates in both parties but largely shunned by the White House.
At the same time, nuclear policy experts said McCain's proposals marked a less dramatic break from the current administration than his campaign suggested.
McCain's campaign has struggled to distance the candidate from the unpopular president, a strategy complicated by the Arizona Republican's embrace of Bush's recent Iraq war policies, which a large majority of Americans continues to oppose.
The senator's awkward relationship with the president was highlighted Tuesday when, after delivering the address at the University of Denver, he headed to Phoenix to join Bush for a fundraiser.
The presumptive Republican nominee, who was interrupted four times by antiwar protesters, argued that past administrations should have acted more aggressively to control nuclear proliferation and that the U.S. must lead by cutting its stockpile.
"The Cold War ended almost 20 years ago, and the time has come to take further measures to reduce dramatically the number of nuclear weapons in the world's arsenal," McCain said.
Bush, early in his administration, signed an agreement with the Kremlin to reduce warheads. But McCain went further, promising to resume talks that would include legally binding verification measures, which the Bush administration has resisted.
The White House has attempted to engage Moscow on a new pact to replace the existing Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expires next year. But the talks have stalled over U.S. insistence that any new deal be free of the kind of detailed inspection and verification regimes that characterized Cold War-era treaties.
"These are areas that the Russians have indicated an interest in that have not been taken up by the Bush administration," said Randy Scheunemann, a top national security advisor to McCain.
