NATO's top military commander in Europe says he welcomes the new conventional arms accord, but that he's concerned some Soviet weaponry already removed from Eastern Europe won't be destroyed under the treaty. The treaty does not take effect until its signing, scheduled for Monday in Paris. Moscow has said it has already moved 20,000 tanks, 24,000 artillery pieces and 800 aircraft to east of the Ural Mountains, out of the treaty area between those mountains and the Atlantic. ``They are a concern to me,'' U.S. General John Galvin said Friday. ``They are not in an offensive deployment (but that does) not take away my worries,'' Galvin, NATO's top commander in Europe, told reporters. But he and other NATO officials welcomed the Conventional Forces in Europe accord, finalized by negotiators from the 16 NATO and six Warsaw Pact nations on Thursday, as a political and military milestone. One official said Moscow ``is aware of our concerns'' that arms, subject to be removed under the CFE treaty, do not remain operational east of the Urals. ``We have been given assurances'' this will not happen, said the official, who asked not to be named. He said North Atlantic Treaty Organization will remain ``vigilant'' and monitor the situation. NATO officials say the Soviet arms already transferred to east of the Ural Mountains are in unprotected storage and bound to deteriorate. The CFE treaty is to be signed Monday by the leaders of the NATO and Warsaw Pact nations in Paris in the margin of a 34-nation East-West summit. Only days later, the NATO and Warsaw Pact states will open talks on a follow-up accord on troop levels across Europe. The CFE treaty will bring about, over three years, a 40 percent cut in battle tanks, armored cars, artillery, combat planes and assault helicopters. In all, 100,000 such items are to go - 90,000 on the Warsaw Pact side, mostly the Soviet Union, and 10,000 on NATO's - leaving 250,000 such arms systems in place overall. The CFE treaty provides for verification of efforts to destroy weapons to ensure each alliance will end up with no more than 20,000 tanks, 30,000 armored cars, 20,000 artillery pieces, 6,800 combat aircraft and 2,000 attack helicopters within the treaty area.
