US President George W Bush has told Congress leaders that the US will withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Russia, Senate Majority leader Thomas Daschle said. When asked whether members of Congress visiting the White House had been informed of Bush's decision to withdraw, Mr Daschle replied: "Yes we were."

Speaking on Tuesday during a visit to a military school in Charleston, South Carolina, Bush had said the US must "move beyond" the treaty that bans testing of missile defence systems. Bush has long been a critic of the treaty signed with Russia during the Cold War, seeing it as outdated and an obstacle to developing a controversial anti-missile defence system (NMD). Bureau Report