国际英语新闻：Russia confirms to continue arms talks with U.S. in February

MOSCOW, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Saturday Russia and the United States would continue nuclear disarmament talks in Geneva in February.

The Russian chief of staff, Gen. Nikolai Makarov, and the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, met in Moscow on Friday to discuss "the drafting of a new nuclear arms reduction treaty and major fields of bilateral cooperation in 2010," a defense ministry spokesman said.

They agreed "to continue the dialogue at the level of experts during the next round of negotiations in Geneva slated for February and to prepare the signing of the treaty," the spokesman said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday the two countries would resume their arms talks "at the start of February."

Russia and the United States have been working on a successor to the the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) that expired on Dec. 5, 2009.

The START-1, signed in 1991 between the Soviet Union and the United States, obliged both sides to reduce the number of their nuclear warheads to 6,000 and delivery vehicles to 1,600.

The new treaty's outline agreed by both countries included slashing nuclear arsenals to 1,500 to 1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500 to 1,000. Disagreements remain on verification and control arrangements to be included in the document.