Russia and the United States are working to reach agreement on a new nuclear accord to replace the treaty which runs out next week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
"The current agreement expires on December 5. The presidents have given their delegations the task of doing everything to ensure a new agreement is ready by then," Lavrov said.
It is up to US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to decide where and when it will be signed, Lavrov added.
The United States said on Monday it was hopeful the negotiations to reach a new agreement by the start of the December would succeed.
Washington and Moscow are negotiating a replacement for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) that was signed just before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
During a visit by Obama to Moscow earlier this year, the two presidents called for a reduction in the number of nuclear warheads in the Russian and US strategic arsenals to between 1,500 and 1,675 within seven years.
Obama and Medvedev said earlier this month they were on target to agree by the end of the year the text of a new treaty.
But a senior White House adviser warned there was not time for the successor to the agreement to be ratified by December 5, meaning a temporary bridging deal would be needed.
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