Obama: New START deal to be completed by year-end

MOSCOW, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. President Barack Obama said here on Monday that a legally binding nuclear arms deal will be completed by the end of this year.

At a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, Obama said the two countries will cut their nuclear stockpiles by one third, and hopefully the reductions could go further.

He also proposed to host a global nuclear security summit next year.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said talks on a new strategic arms reduction treaty between Russia and the United States will continue shortly after the Moscow summit.

"The talks on a replacement for the current strategic arms reduction treaty will continue just days following the Russian-U.S. summit," the Interfax news agency quoted the diplomat as saying.

On bilateral relations, Obama said the United States and Russia have agreed to "reset" relations that have sunk to an unprecedented low after the Cold War.

Medvedev said his talks with Obama marked "the first, yet very important step in the process of activating full-format cooperation" between the two countries.

They also acknowledged remaining differences between the two countries such as Georgia and the missile defense plan.

Medvedev described the adoption of a joint statement on missile defense as very important, since the two countries have agreed to consider their offensive and defensive arsenals together.

Obama arrived here Monday afternoon for a three-day visit to Russia, his first since taking office in January this year.