START-2: Agreement said to be imminent

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In Moscow's strongest public statement yet on the issue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that an agreement would be reached soon on a landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States.

"The remaining questions, I hope, will be resolved rather promptly when the negotiations resume, and they will resume at the very beginning of February, I think," Lavrov told reporters. His words suggest that an agreement is imminent between the two powers on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I).

President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama laid out plans last year for the new treaty between the world's two largest nuclear powers, but talks have faltered, with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s sabre-rattling unsettling many observers.

The ratification of a new treaty not only has implications for global security, but is a key element of efforts to mend relations between Washington and Moscow, which plunged to post-Cold War lows after Russia's brief war with  Georgia in 2008.

Negotiators were unable to reach agreement by Dec. 5, when START I expired, and official negotiations in Geneva have yet to be resumed after a break over the Christmas and New Year holidays. It is hoped that they will resume tomorrow, January 25th.

High-level consultations on the treaty have resumed, however, and U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, were in Moscow last week Moscow for talks. Lavrov said Jones and his Russian counterpart were expected to give the negotiators instructions that would help reach compromises. He did not say what remains in dispute or precisely when a final agreement might be reached.

Both sides have said they want the treaty signed before May. The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, suggested last week that agreement could be reached in "the very near future."

In July, Obama and Medvedev agreed that the new treaty should cut the number of nuclear warheads on each side to between 1,500 and 1,675 and the number of delivery vehicles to between 500 and 1,100. The final hurdle to be overcome concerns monitoring and verification measures.