START talks near completion, officials say

MOSCOW, March 19 (UPI) -- U.S. and Russian negotiators are closing in on completing talks on a successor to the expired Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, officials said.

After their talks concluded in Moscow Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said they were awaiting word from negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland, who have been working to complete the agreement, The Washington Post reported Friday.

"We have every reason to believe we are now at the finish line," Lavrov said during a news conference.

Clinton agreed, saying, "We are making substantial progress on the new START treaty, that's the word from our negotiators in Geneva. And the results of the latest negotiation rounds lead us to believe we'll be reaching a final agreement soon."

The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty would replace a 1991 pact that expired in December. U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed last year that it would reduce deployed long-range warheads from 2,200 to a number between 1,500 and 1,675, as well as reduce the number of bombers and missiles that launch the nuclear weapons.

A State Department spokesman declined to discuss obstacles in the talks, but others familiar with the discussions told the Post one hurdle involved data Russians send their U.S. counterparts from their long-range missile tests.

Clinton and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were scheduled to meet Friday, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported. The State Department earlier said no meeting was planned because Putin would not be in Moscow while Clinton was in the Russian capital.