MOSCOW President Boris Yeltsin, keen to hold a summit with U.S. President Bill Clinton, will summon top Russian officials to urge swift ratification of the START-2 disarmament treaty, the Kremlin spokesman said on Monday. This week the meeting of the big four will take place and I think that the president will strongly offer the issue for the agenda, Yeltsin's press secretary Sergei Yastrzhembsky told Ekho Moskvy radio station. The big four includes Yeltsin, Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko, speaker of the state Duma Lower House Gennady Seleznyov and the chairman of the Federation Council Upper House Yegor Stroyev. The United States has already ratified the 1993 U.S.-Russian START-2 strategic arms accord, which slashes the two countries' deployed nuclear warheads by up to two thirds from about 6,000 each to no more than 3,500 each by the year 2007. The communist-dominated Duma has so far dragged its feet on ratification, saying Russia's security concerns and the price of demolishing missiles should be revised following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Duma is expected to hold hearings on START-2 in early June but no date has been set for ratification debates. Yeltsin's communist opponents want them to take place in autumn at the earliest. (Reuter)