US hopeful of finalising START treaty with Russia

"I know that the negotiations started again in Geneva. Obviously they are working on the last few remaining issues to a new treaty, and we are certainly hopeful that we can get it done in short order," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Officials of the two countries started negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday for the new START treaty to replace the 1991 pact that expired on December 5. When asked if this could be done before the Nuclear Summit in Washington in April, Gibbs said: "I think the US President and the team are of the mind-set that if it were only to take a day to get a deal that is in our interests, then we hope it doesn't take longer than that.

"But if it takes, quite frankly, many more weeks past April to get something that we believe is in our best interest, then we're not looking to rush the negotiations in order to have a signing ceremony prior to that important meeting with countries throughout the world." Leaders of as many as 45 countries, including India and Pakistan, are expected to attend the nuclear summit in Washington in April convened by US President Barack Obama.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had earlier said that he expects a deal in the next two or three weeks. The two countries had earlier tried to conclude the agreement before the end of the last year; but could not do so.

In January, the Obama Administration dispatched its top two officials, including General (rtd) Jim Jones, to Russia to iron out the differences between the two countries, following which both Washington and Moscow had said that it is a matter of time that START II is finalised.

Under START I, which came into effect in 1994, the United States and Russia cut the number of nuclear warheads to 6,000 and their strategic carriers, including land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, to 1,600 pieces. The proposed new START aims to cut 1,500 to 1,675 warheads and 500 to 1,100 strategic carriers in seven years.