Rice is to meet "a number of senior officials" during the one-day visit, the spokesman said Sunday, without providing further details.

Interfax news agency reported that Rice would meet Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and Security Council chief Vladimir Rushailo.

The visit by Rice -- a fluent Russian speaker and arms control expert -- comes amid a new push by both sides to ease mounting tension over the US-led war in Iraq.

On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart George W. Bush said they would pursue "intensive political dialogue" despite differences over the Iraq war.

Russia has been attempting to tone down its outspoken criticism of the war over the past few days, saying that while it still wanted to see the question resolved through UN diplomacy, it also did not wish to see a US defeat.

Also Saturday, Putin urged Russian lawmakers to ratify a major nuclear disarmament treaty signed with Washington last year.

Russian ratification of the so-called "Moscow treaty" had been scheduled for late last month, but the State Duma lower house of parliament called off the vote in protest at the US-led war in Iraq.

In March, the US Senate ratified the treaty, which provides for a two-thirds reduction of both countries' long-range nuclear warheads from around 6,000 warheads each at present to under 2,200 by 2012.

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