The United States and Russia ended a week of talks here without coming to any agreement on a new nuclear weapons treaty, the US mission said in a statement.

The Cold War-era Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) signed between the US and the Soviet Union expires in December 2009 and Washington and Moscow are seeking to thrash out terms of a new accord.

The former Soviet republics of Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan also took part in the talks.

Prior to the Geneva meeting, Washington's negotiator John Rood had said the US had submitted a proposal focused on limiting nuclear warheads, even though Russia wanted to open up the negotiations to limits on conventional forces and missile defence.

"The parties desire to point out that there was no treaty requirement to make a decision to extend the treaty at this meeting," the US statement said.

"The United States of America, the republic of Belarus, the republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Ukraine will continue to consider the issue," it added.