US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev have agreed that Washington and Moscow are close to reaching agreement on a new nuclear disarmament treaty, the Kremlin said.

US and Russian negotiators have been meeting in Geneva to discuss a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), a landmark Cold War-era nuclear arms pact which expired in December.

In a telephone conversation on Saturday, both presidents "expressed satisfaction with the highly advanced state of preparations" for the new accord, the Kremlin said in a statement.

During their talks, "it was stressed that it is already possible to set firm dates to submit the draft agreement to the heads of state for their signature," it said, without giving a specific timeframe.

Medvedev and Obama "agreed to give additional instructions to the delegations" with a view to finalising a deal, it said.

In Washington, US National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said the two presidents had a "good" conversation in which they reviewed the progress of the Geneva negotiations.

"The results of their talks are encouraging, and both leaders are committed to concluding an agreement soon," he said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to discuss START with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov when she visits Moscow on Thursday and Friday.

Signed in 1991, START led to huge reductions in the US and Russian nuclear arsenals and imposed verification measures to build trust between the two former Cold War foes.

The broad outlines of a replacement treaty have been clear since July, when Obama and Medvedev agreed to slash the number of warheads on either side to between 1,500 and 1,675.

The United States has said it currently has some 2,200 nuclear warheads, while Russia is believed to have about 3,000.

But the talks have been complicated by disagreements over a range of issues, including US plans for a missile defence system in eastern Europe.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Obama had been "frustrated" after a February phone call with Medvedev, who told him Moscow wanted to reopen issues that Washington had thought settled, including the missile shield.

In particular, Moscow was angered by an announcement in January that Romania would host elements of a US missile shield and sought to reintroduce the issue of missile defence at the talks, The New York Times said.

Russia's foreign ministry later denied that disagreements over the missile defence system were holding up the negotiations.

Agreeing a replacement for the treaty has been a foreign-policy priority for the Obama administration and a deal would help bolster the US leader's stated goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.

But a White House spokesman hinted this week that US negotiators would not rush the START talks just to get a new deal signed before April, when Obama hosts a nuclear non-proliferation summit in Washington.

earlier related report
Top campaigner scoffs at Euro noises on US nukes
Brussels (AFP) March 11, 2010 - A top nuclear disarmament advocate scoffed on Thursday at public efforts to see US Cold War-era warheads removed from Europe, citing staunch opposition from former Russian satellite states.

Ex-Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, of the Australian and Japanese-sponsored International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, said an upcoming NATO debate on the issue represents "the first major task for disarmament" in a "watershed" 2010.

Foreign ministers from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway obtained a commitment from NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to hold a "discussion" on the future of outdated US nuclear warheads located in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey when alliance heads meet in Tallinn on April 22 and 23.

But speaking in Brussels after talks with alliance officials, Evans cited fierce resistance among ex-Soviet eastern European nations.

"The argument is very well made that these weapons have no deterrent utility or military usability," Evans told AFP.

"(But) I don't think the Americans, or those who will be responsible for negotiations with Russia about its tactical nuclear weapons, (will see) much virtue in a unilateral gesture when there is a heavy negotiation ahead.

"They want these weapons to be a negotiating coin."

Evans underlined that the newer European Union and NATO members "are still not persuaded that these weapons have no deterrent virtue.

"It's a long haul ahead on this one," he sighed.

Disarmament, having "gone to sleep" as an issue over the past decade, is back in policymakers' sights in the run-up to a summit in Washington in April, focused on improving the security of existing nuclear weapons.

Driven by US President Barack Obama, it aims to lessen the risk of terrorists or rogue states getting their hands on warheads from the world's 23,000-strong stockpile -- 22,000 of which are shared between Russia and the United States.

Obama's administration has vowed to make "dramatic reductions" in its nuclear arsenal as part of a national review, due to be completed later this month.

The roughly 240 ageing warheads up for discussion in Estonia are at best what Evans called a "symbolic and substantive gesture," as highlighted by the fact that the Netherlands and Turkey did not sign the initial letter to Rasmussen.

A European diplomat conceded that "eastern European countries, and all the Russia-phobes, (still) see these arms as a security guarantee, as a deterrent" against war.

However, he also said Evans "missed the point," adding that the five western European NATO nations "did not ask for removal of the warheads" in their letter.

"I dont think it's necessarily (even) clear the five all agree the warheads should be removed," he underlined.

"Eventually, yes. But the time is not necessarily opportune to ask for it now."

Upcoming US negotiations with Russia on nuclear arms reduction, reviews of non-proliferation treaty progress and US nuclear policy, plus a NATO strategic overhaul currently being discussed, each take enormous precedence, he underlined.

A recent book co-authored by Evans calls on leaders to reduce the world's stockpile to 2,000 warheads by 2025, warning that only "sheer dumb luck" has prevented a catastrophe to-date.