Moscow

Russian official: Arms deal with U.S. this month

Russia and the United States expect to strike a new nuclear arms treaty this month, a senior Kremlin aide told Russian news agencies today.

The START I treaty signed in 1991 expired Friday. It obliged each country to cut its nuclear warheads by at least a quarter, to about 6,000 and included detailed verification procedures.

Presidential adviser Arkady Dvorkovich said that Russia and the U.S. plan to finalize talks on a successor deal this month, the RIA Novosti and Interfax news agencies reported.

“We intend to complete these talks in December,” they quoted Dvorkovich as saying.

President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed at a Moscow summit in July to cut the number of nuclear warheads each possesses to between 1,500 and 1,675 within seven years as part of a broad new treaty. U.S. and Russian negotiators are still grappling over details of the deal.