Russia ready for new arms reduction talks with US

Russia was ready to hold talks with the new US administration on cuts in strategic offensive weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

Russia was ready to hold talks with the new US administration on cuts in strategic offensive weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

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"We are ready for talks, which will allow us to preserve the mechanism of limitations and reductions of strategic offensive weapons and we are glad that the new US administration is paying priority attention to this subject," Lavrov said in an interview with Russia's Vesti-24 TV news channel.

The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) signed between the Soviet Union and the US in 1991 expires Dec 5, 2009.

Officials from the new US administration of President Barack Obama have said Washington was committed to a further reduction of nuclear arms, adding that negotiations with Russia need to pick up pace.

Lavrov said Russia sought a clearer response from the former administration for two and a half years, but the progress was very slow and had not produced the desired results so far.

"We have noticed that the Obama team is ready to discuss the whole range of issues, including the mechanisms of verification and control, mutual inspections. We shall hope that when the disarmament team is formed in the State Department, which has not happened as yet, we will be able to start the talks immediately," he said.

Moscow and Washington agreed in 2002 to cut strategic nuclear warheads to 1,700-2,200 by the end of 2012, and reports say a new treaty could bring the total on each side down to 1,000.

However, Lavrov said it was necessary not only to reduce offensive weapons, but also to ensure the effective use of control mechanisms and procedures, "which the previous administration ignored categorically".