Top Russian and US officials held talks in Moscow Monday dealing with the expired START nuclear weapons treaty, and a new deal could be reached by December 18, according to a Russian newspaper.
Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Riabkov and US undersecretary of state Ellen Tauscher held a meeting on disarmament and international security, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
They discussed "the additional reduction of strategic weapons and the fight against the proliferation of technologies relative to missiles," the statement said without giving further details.
The meeting took place two days after the expiration of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. US President Barack Obama and Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev have both urged negotiators to reach a new accord "as soon as possible".
According to the daily Kommersant on Monday, citing sources in the Russian presidency and foreign ministry, "there is a desire to conclude and sign a new accord by December 18," it said.
The two countries have "succeeded in agreeing on the main points," the paper said, adding what remained was agreeing on the wording of the text.
"The Russian and American negotiators are continuing their consultations nearly around the clock in Geneva," the paper quoted its sources as saying.
Signed in 1991, START led to deep cuts in the US and Russian nuclear arsenals and came to be seen as a cornerstone of strategic arms control.
It had helped build trust between the former Cold War foes and reduce the threat of nuclear Armageddon.
US and Russian negotiators tried for six months to thrash out a successor to the hugely complex treaty, but failed to meet the December 5 expiration date.
Obama and Medvedev spoke by telephone on Friday and agreed to give an "additional impulse" to the Geneva negotiations, the Kremlin said.
A new accord would mark a relaunch of US-Russian relations which soured in the final months of former president George W. Bush's administration.
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