Russia and the United States on Monday resumed marathon talks in Geneva to renew a key nuclear disarmament treaty which expired in December, a Russian diplomat said.

"As announced by the Russian Foreign Minister on Friday, the negotiations have restarted today in Geneva," a Russian diplomat told AFP, without specifying how long the new round of talks would last.
 

Russian and US delegations have been meeting regularly since last May to conclude a treaty to replace the landmark 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which expired on 5 December.
 

Discussions on a new deal had largely stalled under George W. Bush’s presidency.
 

However, Barack Obama's arrival in the White House and his recent move to scrap missile shield plans in eastern Europe have provided fresh impetus for negotiations to move forward.
 

On 27 January, the United States said that talks were "nearly complete."
 

The broad outlines of the new treaty have been clear since a summit in July, when Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev agreed that the replacement treaty should slash the number of warheads on either side to between 1,500 and 1,675.
 

The presidents also agreed that the number of carriers capable of delivering the warheads should be limited to between 500 and 1,100.
 

The United States has said it currently has some 2,200 nuclear warheads, while Russia is believed to have about 3,000.
 

Source: AFP