DENVER — Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain called Tuesday for talks with China to negotiate a temporary halt to production of nuclear weapons-grade material and with Russia on a new treaty to destroy more nuclear weapons.

“Today we deploy thousands of nuclear warheads,” McCain said. “It is my hope to move as rapidly as possible to a significantly smaller force.” He did not set a specific goal but said the number would be consistent with U.S. security and global commitments.

Cautioning against relying solely on force or merely on talks, McCain proposed a bipartisan push to strengthen a broad array of international arms treaties and nuclear monitoring. And he criticized past administrations, both Democratic and Republican, for failing to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.

“We should also begin a dialogue with China on strategic and nuclear issues,” the likely Republican presidential nominee said in a speech at the University of Denver. The goal would be to encourage China to conform to the practices of the other four nuclear powers recognized by the Non-Proliferation Treaty, “including working toward nuclear arsenal reductions and toward a moratorium on the production of additional fissile material.”

The Arizona senator said the U.S. should “enter into a new arms control agreement with Russia reflecting the nuclear reductions I will seek.”

He also called for exploring with Russia the possible elimination of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, and the sharing of early warning data and prior notification of missile launches. And he said he’d be willing to seriously consider Russia’s recent proposal to extend the reach of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to the entire globe and to take another look at the failed Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to overcome the shortcomings that prompted him to oppose it in 1999.

McCain said he was open to listening to a slew of people and weighing a bevy of proposals — a tacit contrast to President Bush, who critics contend has engaged in partisan go-it-alone diplomacy that has strained U.S. relations with allies.