WASHINGTON (UPI): The Clinton Administration is finally admitting what has been apparent for some time: It is likely to reverse course and begin implementing a missile defense system.

While the talk has been consistent for months, with officials stating no formal decision would be made until next June, developments this week prompted a more direct confirmation that the administration will proceed with development of a limited system.

In the wake of this week's Senate defeat of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, word leaked out the administration was now focusing on ways to get Russia on board for changing parts of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which would prohibit the nationwide defense system that is under consideration.

White House chief of staff John Podesta confirmed Sunday the United States was "in discussions with the Russians" regarding the matter.

"We don't want to weaken Russian security," Podesta said on ABC's "This Week" program. "We're looking to enhance both countries' security, and that may need some adjustments to the ABM treaty, and we're in discussions on that."

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told CNN she was talking "fairly frequently" with her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

"We are just in a preliminary stage of this," Albright said. "We believe it is time to relook at the ABM treaty...(and) the possibility of adjusting it slightly in order to be able to have a missile defense."

The New York Times reported the United States now was offering to help Russia complete a multimillion-dollar missile tracking radar near Irkutsk, Siberia, if Moscow agreed to renegotiate the arms pact.

The campaign has been under way for some time, as President Clinton has raised the question several times with Russis President Boris Yeltsin, who has agreed to discuss it but has so far refused to alter the treaty.

It still is far from clear whether the Russian government will block any such effort as the question becomes more than hypothetical and actual negotiations are broached.

Moscow announced just days after the Senate voted down the nuclear test ban treaty that it would work with China to seek support at the United Nations against U.S. efforts to alter the accord. The Russian Duma (Parliament) also continues to block further arms reductions by refusing to ratify the START II treaty.

The Clinton administration is now saying it needs a missile defense program to defend against potential intercontinental missile attacks from North Korea, Iran, Iraq or other rogue nations.

Top officials say the United States is not trying to ditch the treaty, however, only to update it.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle said "new circumstances" have caused the ABM treaty "to evolve".

"We have to continue to move in that direction. This is what our country is doing," Daschle said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation" program.

The ABM treaty was negotiated to limit development of national anti-missile defense systems in Russia and the United States because of fears both sides would accumulate more arms to penetrate such shields.

The Times reported that the first phase of the U.S. anti-missile system would be completed by 2005. It involves building a powerful new battle-management radar in Alaska and deploying up to 100 anti-missile interceptors there. American early warning radars in Greenland and Britain, and on the east and west coasts of the U.S., would also be upgraded.

The second phase would be completed by 2010 and could involve construction of a similar radar at Grand Forks, N.D., and deployment of 100 interceptors there, the newspaper said.

U.S. officials say such a plan would enable the U.S. to protect itself against a limited missile attack. And since the defense could easily be swamped by Russia's vast arsenal, they argue, strategic equilibrium between Washington and Moscow would be maintained.

Besides completing the radar, the Times said the United States has offered the Russians joint computer simulations of anti-missile systems; expanded intelligence sharing on threats from rogue states; collaboration in developing two missile observation satellites; a joint presence at one U.S. and one Russian radar site; and joint exercises in battlefield missile defense.

Albright said the offers were aimed at "making very clear to them that any national missile defense system that we would have would not be directed against them, but against the rogue states."