Medvedev, Obama pledge to seek new arms cuts deal

MOSCOW, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Russia and the United States will continue to work on a new nuclear arms reduction treaty as the existing one expires, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama said in a joint statement on Friday.

The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1), signed in 1991 between the Soviet Union and the United States, expires on Saturday.

"Recognizing our mutual determination to support strategic stability between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, we express our commitment, as a matter of principle, to continue to work together in the spirit of the START treaty following its expiration, as well as our firm intention to ensure that a new treaty on strategic arms enters into force at the earliest possible date," says the statement, published on the Kremlin website.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Foreign Ministry said both countries were concluding talks on reaching a new nuclear weapons cuts deal.

Meanwhile, the Interfax news agency cited a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that Russian-U.S. talks on nuclear disarmament might continue in Geneva after the START-1 expires.

Medvedev and Obama agreed in London in early April to find a replacement for the START-1, which obliges both sides to reduce their nuclear warheads to 6,000 and delivery vehicles to 1,600.

The two countries' presidents agreed at a July summit in Moscow on the outline of the new arms control treaty, including slashing their countries' nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000.