MANAGUA, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Nicaragua told the United States on Wednesday that it will not destroy all of its Russian-made surface-to-air SAM-7 missiles.

    Nicaragua will retain a strategic reserve of 20 percent of the total so as not to undercut the country's defense capacity, said Defense Minister Jose Guerra after meeting a US delegation.

    "We reached specific agreements so as to ease any concerns, doubts or worries there might be on the US part," Guerra added.

    The US mission, headed by acting Undersecretary for Political-Military Affairs of the State Department Rose Likins, arrived hereTuesday to address issues related to the safeguard of arms and the strengthening of national and regional security.

    Likins is in Nicaragua due to the decision by the National Assembly to proceed with the destruction of the SAM-7 missiles only with the support of 56 representatives, which generates difficulties in the destruction of the arms system.

    This bill on missile destruction was approved last year in the parliament with the support of left-wing Sandinista Front of National Liberation and the Liberal Constitutionalist Party.

    Last year, the Nicaraguan army destroyed 1,000 missiles of its arsenal, but the United States keeps on pressurizing for the remaining SAM-7s -- at least 1,000 -- to be destroyed, for fear that they might fall into the hands of international terrorists.

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