By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 8:19 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration plans deep cuts in programs aimed at helping Russia safeguard its nuclear materials even though a recent high-level commission called the program essential to national security.

A proposed budget for fiscal 2002, now being put together by the administration, would cut spending for Russian nuclear nonproliferation activities from $872 million to $800 million, government and private sources said Thursday.

The cuts were ordered by the White House despite several attempts by Energy Secretary Spence Abraham to obtain more money for a program widely supported by nonproliferation advocates, said these sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Energy Department originally had hoped for a substantial increase in financial support for the program. A Clinton administration draft proposed more than $1.2 billion for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, the sources said.

In January, a bipartisan, private commission called the risk of theft of Russian nuclear materials ``the most urgent unmet national security threat'' facing the United States and urged sharp increases in spending.

The Energy Department initiatives targeted by budget cutters include programs aimed at reinforcing security at Russian nuclear weapons facilities, providing help to economically strapped Russian nuclear scientists and helping Russia convert weapons-grade plutonium to less-threatening materials.

While changes may still be made in the funding levels before President Bush sends Congress his detailed budget proposals for fiscal year 2002, several attempts by the department to get additional money already have been rebuffed by the Office of Management and Budget, the sources said.

``This budget signals a retreat from a decade's worth of work with Russia to secure nuclear weapons expertise and materials,'' said William Hoehn of the Russian American Nuclear Security Advisory Council, a nonproliferation advocacy group.

According to the latest DOE budget document, programs to increase security at Russian nuclear facilities would be cut by $31 million to about $170 million. The Energy Department sought an increase to $225 million.

The government's Russia ``nuclear cities'' program, aimed at finding jobs and getting economic aid to Russian nuclear scientists, would be cut by $20 million to about $7 million, the sources said.

Bush will ask for more money to dispose of Russia's excess plutonium stocks, but the amount falls far short of the proposed doubling of the $226 million program that the Clinton administration proposed, the sources said.

Reports of the budget cuts brought a sharp response Thursday from Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

<>``Dramatic cuts to these programs ... may cripple our efforts to secure nuclear material in Russia and ensure that Russia's nuclear physicists are gainfully employed in nondefense-related industries,'' Tauscher wrote Mitchell Daniels, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

In January, a top-level, bipartisan commission issued a report recommending top priority and sharply increased spending on the Russian nonproliferation assistance programs. The panel said the risks of Russian nuclear materials being obtained by terrorists or unfriendly smaller states is significant and real.

The report urged spending of $30 billion over 10 years to help Russia keep its nuclear materials and atomic scientists out of the hands of rogue states or terrorists. Such spending would be a prudent investment in world security, the commission concluded in a report sent to the Energy Department and White House.

The panel was co-chaired by former GOP Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker of Tennessee and Lloyd Cutler, a White House counsel for former President Clinton. The commission also included former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., both widely respected experts on nonproliferation and national security.

-- Bush So Dumb It's Scary (nation@risk.com), March 15, 2001