As a group of baffled schoolchildren looked on, President George W. Bush made his most definitive statement to date about US plans to unilaterally withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Speaking from a school cafeteria in Crawford, Texas, where he had been answering students' questions about sport and exercise, Mr Bush turned to the topic of arms control.
"We will withdraw from the ABM treaty on our timetable at a time convenient to America," Mr Bush said. "I have no specific timetable in mind. I do know that the ABM treaty hampers us from doing what we need to do. And secondly, I do know that Russian President Mr Putin is aware of our desires to move beyond the ABM treaty, and we will."
Mr Bush's statement came on the heels of a failure by senior US officials in Moscow to reach agreement with the Russians on amendments to the treaty. Russia maintains its position that it will not withdraw from the treaty, as the US wishes it to do, while the US insists that mere amendments cannot solve the problem because the treaty is essentially "flawed", in Mr Bush's words.
The treaty allows either Russia or the US to withdraw on six months' notice. The Pentagon has said it wishes to begin missile defence testing, a violation of the treaty, within months.
Mr John Bolton, under-secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs, said in an interview with a Moscow radio station this week that November was a target for making significant progress and that Washington would pull out of the treaty if an agreement remained elusive. He later said he had not meant November to be a strict deadline.
Mr Bolton visited Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to wrap up the latest round in a month-long series of high-level consultations designed to bring the two sides closer on missile defence.
A number of meetings between Russian officials and US officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, are planned before the November summit in Texas between Mr Bush and Mr Putin. Mr Bush has sought Russia's agreement on the withdrawal as a way to dilute opposition to the US missile defence plan from Europe.
Mr Bush faces serious opposition in Congress next month to his $18 billion plan to fund missile defence. With the US budget surplus shrinking rapidly, Democrats and some Republicans have suggested that this is not the time to spend money on a hi-tech defence programme whose efficiency is seen, at best, as questionable.
Russia and the US yesterday agreed to keep talking about arms despite Mr Bush's pronouncement yet that the treaty is dead.
Moscow painted a rosy picture of ties between the two countries and said arms talks so far had proved "useful". But it set modest goals for future consultations, suggesting that no breakthrough was in sight.
Russia's Foreign Ministry made no direct reply to Bush's remarks about withdrawing from the treaty. In a statement on Mr Bolton's visit, the ministry said bilateral ties had shown a "positive dynamic" since Mr Bush met Mr Putin in June and July.
Consultations on strategic stability would continue, the statement said, but it described the aim of the future talks as "to clarify positions, and possibly bring them closer together" - modest language suggesting lukewarm expectations.
As the Bush administration makes its missile defence plans more explicit, speculation has shifted from whether Washington will scrap the treaty to when it will do so - and whether Bush will act alone or finagle acquiescence from Russia at the last minute.
Russia has long maintained that the pact, signed by the US and Soviet Union, is the foundation for other international arms control accords and its abrogation would make the world a dangerous place.
Mr Bush wants to build the missile defence shields to guard the US from a perceived threat of rocket attack by "rogue states" such as Iraq or North Korea.
Russia says Washington exaggerates that threat and ignores the danger that a missile shield would spark an arms race, as countries feel pressed to expand missile programmes in response.
Winning Russia's agreement to scrap the ABM treaty could make it easier for Mr Bush to build support for his missile defence plans among Democrats at home and Western allies abroad.
The German government yesterday said it did not believe Mr Bush's remarks represented a major policy shift. "The Bush administration already made it clear early on that they wanted out of the treaty," said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.
The German government has been criticised for sending mixed messages on missile defence. In January, Chancellor Schroeder said "the transatlantic community must keep up our efforts especially on arms control and disarmament". But a month later, he said it was important that Germany "not be excluded from this technology and technological know-how".