President Clinton, who fought long and hard to get American law-makers to ratify the pact, finally wrote to the Senate seeking a postponement of the vote scheduled for Tuesday. Deferring the vote will save the treaty from outright rejection, allowing the administration to fight for it another day, another time.

That may not be any time soon.

Although Clinton refused to bow to the Senate Republican demand that he promise not to bring up the treaty till he leaves office, senior Presidential aides indicated that lawmakers could keep it out till the next administration comes in.

"That's a matter for the Senate, in terms of their schedule and preferences. It's not something the President felt would be responsible for him to say," a top-ranking administration official was quoted as saying in reference to the Republican demand that the treaty be buried tillClinton leaves office. Officials however maintained that giving tacit approval to a Senate plan to defer the vote till Clinton is out of office did not foreclose the Administration's ability to raise the issue. "Delay is better than defeat," National Security Adviser Samuel Berger was quoted as saying. "This is not a question of taking a U-turn, but taking a side road that I believe will get us back to the main road."

Evidently, Clinton would not publicly agree to inter the treaty for fear of undermining his already weak hand vis-a-vis India and Pakistan, besides inviting ridicule from his European allies.

Clinton's letter to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott read:

Dear Mr Leader: Tomorrow, the Senate is scheduled to vote on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. I firmly believe the treaty is in the national interest. However, I recognise that there are a significant number of senators who have honest disagreements. I believe that proceeding to vote under these circumstances would severely harm thenational security of the United States, damage our relationship with our allies, and undermine our historic leadership over 40 years... in reducing the nuclear threat.

Accordingly, I request you to postpone consideration of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on the Senate floor.

The withdrawal is a bitter blow to Clinton, both personally and politically. The President has made the CTBT a prestige issue, declaring it the longest sought, hardest fought treaty in the history of arms control. He had also launched a personal crusade for it, maintaining that it was his number one foreign policy priority during his second term. But worsted in several political battles by the sweet talking President, crusty conservatives finally beat him on this one.

Although Clinton did not publicly commit to interring the treaty for the remainder of his term, it is almost certain that the Republicans have shafted it for now despite the universal infamy it might bring on Washington.

Lott and his conservative troops have notresponded to Clinton's climbdown but indications are they will not press for a vote which they can easily win and almost certainly kill the treaty.

The Republicans have 55 members in the Senate and the Democrats have 45. The administration needed 67 votes to get the treaty ratified.

Now with Washington putting the treaty on the backburner, both China and Russia, which waited for the US to take the lead, are expected to back down too. Consequently, there will be that much less pressure on India and Pakistan to sign the treaty, though the Clinton administration has far from given up hope.