Former President George H.W. Bush is urging the Senate to ratify a nuclear arms pact with Russia.
His backing gives a potentially significant boost to the treaty sought by President Barack Obama but viewed skeptically by some Senate Republicans.
The first president Bush announced his support for the New START treaty in a brief statement: "I urge the United States Senate to ratify the START treaty."
He is the latest prominent Republican to support the deal, which would limit how many nuclear warheads each country can possess while establishing new inspection procedures. Obama is urging Congress to pass the treaty before recessing for the holidays.
Bush signed the original START treaty with Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1993.
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