A senior Russian official has criticized the United States for offering only "empty proposals" on replacing the START I nuclear arms treaty, which expires next year, the Interfax news agency reported Sunday.

Briefing journalists ahead of Monday's meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US counterpart George W. Bush at the G8 summit in Japan, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko called on the US to reach a new agreement by the end of the year.

"In the words of the US side there is a willingness to achieve agreement on the replacement of the START I treaty," Prikhodko told the news agency.

"But in fact there is no movement. As before, Russia is being offered empty proposals in the form of transparency measures that exclude control over strategic missiles and several other components of START I."

Prikhodko said he hoped that "the current impasse could be overcome and a mutually acceptable understanding be reached by the end of the year" before Bush steps down in January.

"The global community expects this from us," he said.

The START I treaty was drawn up by the United States and then Soviet Union to limit each side's intercontinental nuclear arsenals and was ratified in 1994 after modifications to take account of the Soviet collapse.

It has a 15-year lifespan and expires in December next year, although there is an option to renew.