"It's probably going to happen next week," the State Department official told reporters when asked about the issue.

"The president (George W. Bush) has to withdraw the document from Congress. So he needs to take that step, and that's what will happen."

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not explicitly say whether the decision had already been taken to withdraw the pact.

The White House said August 28 that it was considering dropping the agreement.

The agreement aims to allow US and Russian companies to form joint ventures in the nuclear sector and gives the go-ahead for exchanges of nuclear technology between the two countries, according to officials on both sides.

Russia would also be able to reprocess spent nuclear fuel originating in the United States, which accounts for most of the world market, in a move that has raised fears of Russia being turned into a nuclear dump.

President Bush and his Russian counterpart at the time Vladimir Putin inked the agreement at a summit in Kennebunkport in the United States last year and discussed it again in the Russian resort of Sochi in July.

Asked if dropping the agreement could undermine efforts to stop the spread of nuclear technology, the State Department official said: "It's hard to predict.

"But again we've made very clear that Russia's behavior has to be condemned and there have to be consequences that flow from (its actions) in Georgia. This will be an example of that," he said.

"We want to work with Russia on a wide range of issues, but Russia has to show it's interested in working with the international community," he said.

"The fact there is a ceasefire ...that they're not adhering to is troubling to all of us and so we question just how closely we can work with Russia on a wide range of issues," he said.

"And that's why basically our relationship right now is being reviewed across the board," he said.

Russian troops poured into Georgia last month to repel an attack by the Georgian army aimed at retaking South Ossetia. They have remained deep inside Georgian territory in what Moscow calls "security zones."

earlier related report
Cheney rallies NATO to ward off Russian power grab
Casting Moscow as a brutal regime that aims to recapture its Soviet-era dominance, US Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday urged NATO to stand together against threats to democracy.

In the US administration's most hawkish tone since Russia's five-day war with Georgia last month over breakaway territory, Cheney reminded the West of its "responsibilities" and slammed Russia's "chain of aggressive moves."

Cheney's tough talk came hours after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that Moscow was a "force to be reckoned with," as tensions between Russia and the West soared to heights unseen since the Cold War.

"Russia has a choice to make, and we in the transatlantic alliance have responsibilities," Cheney told a gathering of world political and financial leaders in Italy, after visiting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine this week to pledge US support.

"Our prevailing need is for unity of purpose," he said.

"We know that if one country is allowed to unilaterally redraw the borders of another, it will happen -- and it will happen again. We know that if we permit a new line to be drawn across Europe, that line will be drawn."

Cheney hailed the demise of the Soviet Union as a historic milestone for freedom and said that although the West had left those days behind, Russia appeared to seek a return to the Soviet era.

"At times it appears that Russian policy is based upon the desire to impose its will on countries it once dominated, instead of any balanced assessment of security interests," Cheney said.

He also said Russia was defying its responsibilities under a French-brokered ceasefire for Georgia and declared Russia was on an "opposite course" from the West.

"Though aware of these responsibilities, Russia has yet to meet them. Indeed, it has taken the opposite course, by recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states," Cheney said.

Cheney pointed to Russia's military action over the rebel region of South Ossetia, as well as Russian arms sales to Middle East militants, its energy prowess in the region, threats against NATO-member Poland and its defiance of a French-brokered ceasefire accord.

"Recent occurrences in Georgia, beginning with the military invasion by Russia, have been flatly contrary to some of our most deeply held beliefs," Cheney said.

"Russian forces crossed an internationally recognized border, into a sovereign state; fueled and fomented an internal conflict; conducted acts of war without regard for innocent life," he said.

"All this against a nation that has a democratically elected government and an orientation towards the West," Cheney added.

"This chain of aggressive moves and diplomatic reversals has only intensified the concern that many have about Russia's larger objectives. For brutality against a neighbor is simply the latest in a succession of troublesome and unhelpful actions by the Russian government," he said.

Cheney's trip is part of US diplomatic push to advance NATO membership talks for Georgia and Ukraine, which Russia opposes, and to press for alternate oil and gas pipelines so that the region is less dependent on Russian energy.

"In Central Asia, the Caucasus and beyond Russia has continued to use energy as a tool of force and manipulation," Cheney said.

He also accused Russia of selling "advanced weapons" to Syria and Iran.

"Some of the Russian weapons sold to Damascus have been channeled to terrorist fighters in Lebanon and Iraq," he said, warning that Russian arms deals in the Middle East "has endangered the prospects for peace and freedom in the region."

The United States led Western condemnation of Russia's military action in Georgia. This week it announced a one-billion-dollar aid package to help the country rebuild infrastructure and care for displaced people.

Russia has sought to rally ex-Soviet allies to its side and ratcheted up anti-US rhetoric, while maintaining what it calls peacekeepers inside Georgian territory.

Earlier in Moscow, Medvedev renewed accusations that the United States was rearming Georgia under the guise of humanitarian aid and warned: "Russia is a state that has to be reckoned with from now on."

Cheney delivered his address after talks with world leaders including Israeli President Shimon Peres and former Spanish president Jose Aznar at the Ambrosetti forum near Lake Como.

On his tour of Baku, Tbilisi and Kiev this week, he pledged Washington's "deep and abiding interest" in those countries' "well being and security."

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