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January 23, 2010

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Russia, US to resume nuclear talks next month

RUSSIA and the United States will resume stalled talks on a replacement nuclear arms reduction treaty in early February, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said yesterday.

Military officials are holding talks in Moscow to clarify differences over verification and missile defense, Lavrov said. "The remaining questions will be solved rather quickly," he said. "The talks will resume in the very beginning of February."

US officials said earlier they expected talks to resume on Monday in Geneva.

A new agreement would succeed the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expired on December 5. The two countries had hoped to reach a deal before the end of the year, but problems persisted.

In late December, Moscow said it wanted Washington to share detailed data about the sea- and land-based systems the US plans. The systems would replace the interceptor missiles and radar the US had planned to base in Poland and the Czech republic.

Russia treated the plans as a threat, and US President Barack Obama scrapped them last year.

Lavrov called on Washington to change its approach.

Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed in July to cut the number of nuclear warheads each country has to between 1,500 and 1,675.

Moscow and Washington both want to reach a new accord quickly to give credibility to their efforts to persuade Iran and North Korea to abandon their nuclear programs.



 

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