Obama hopes for nuclear arms breakthrough with Russia

Moscow - US President Barack Obama plans to discuss concrete steps towards nuclear arms control during his visit to Moscow next week, he said in an interview released Friday 'My goal is that both countries reduce their nuclear stockpiles in a way that doesn't leave either country with an advantage,' he told the Russian Itar-Tass news agency. 'We want to get beyond the Cold War,' said Obama, who arrives in Moscow on Monday for talks with president Dmitry Medvedev ahead of travelling to the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Italy. Obama is also scheduled to hold his first meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a man he described as 'a very strong leader for the Russian people.' The US president and Medvedev are expected to focus on finding a replacement for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expires December 5. Experts expect the two leaders to sign a memorandum of understanding that would reduce stockpiles to a maximum of 1,500 warheads per country. Statistics released by both countries in April showed the US has 5,576 nuclear warheads and Russia 3,909. US and Russian experts have been conducting intensive discussions ahead of the visit, but have been unable to agree on concrete reduction targets, the daily Kommersant reported Friday, quoting delegation sources. One of the key sticking points is the US plan to base a missile defence system in Poland and Czech Republic, a move which Moscow is strongly opposed to. 'It is impossible to discuss a reduction of strategic nuclear weapons until there is absolute clarity about the US (missile) plans in Europe,' Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the radio station Echo Moskvy. Other topics of the talks are likely to be the fight against international terrorism, the situation in Afghanistan and confronting Iranian and North Korean nuclear ambitions.