In the latest effort to reset strained ties, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama held their first face-to-face meeting on Wednesday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in London.

Without a breakthrough agreement in place, the leaders pledged in a joint statement to negotiate a replacement for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) by the end of the year.

A new treaty on strategic offensive weapons, though of limited significance in overall Russian-U.S. relations, will create a favorable climate for mending their relations, analysts said.

Charting fresh start in relations

The much-anticipated meeting was seen as a historic opportunity for the presidents to build a better Russian-U.S. relationship.

"We, the leaders of Russia and the United States, are ready to move beyond Cold War mentalities and chart a fresh start in relations between our two countries," Medvedev and Obama said in a joint statement after their meeting.

Nevertheless, expectations are low for much immediate progress on disputes between the White House and the Kremlin, as the presidents were meeting on the eve of the G20 summit, which focuses on the global economic downturn.

But an agreement to negotiate a new deal on cutting nuclear warheads raised hopes that the two countries are on track toward a better relationship.

The two countries will "begin bilateral intergovernmental negotiations to work out a new, comprehensive, legally binding agreement on reducing and limiting strategic offensive arms to replace the START treaty," the statement said.

The leaders have instructed negotiators to report their first results on the new agreement by July, when Obama visits Moscow.

The START I, signed in 1991 between the United States and the former Soviet Union, places a limit of 6,000 strategic or long-range nuclear warheads on each side and allows the inspection of weapons.

The subsequent 2002 treaty signed in Moscow called for reducing nuclear warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 by the end of 2012, but made no provision for verification. If START expires in December without a follow-up, the Moscow treaty would be left with no legally binding system for verification.

It is estimated that the United States currently has at least 2,200 strategic nuclear warheads deployed and Russia between 2,000 and 3,000.

The joint statement of Medvedev and Obama said the new treaty would set lower limits for strategic weapons than the 2002 treaty.

Both sides could agree on cutting their nuclear warheads to 1,300-1,500 under the new treaty, Maj. Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, a senior fellow with the International Security Center at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, said.

However, a number of stumbling blocks remain on concluding such a treaty.

"Among them, the major one is the coordination of principles on the accounting of warheads, because there has been a lot of disputes on this issue over the years," Dvorkin was quoted by Interfax as saying.

During their meeting, the two presidents also "agreed to work toward and support a coordinated international response with the UN playing a key role" on Afghanistan, according to the joint statement. As for Iran, they said they would continue to work on a comprehensive diplomatic solution.

End of old era

Russian-U.S. relations have sunk to a post-Cold War low amid an array of rows, including Washington's missile defense plan in Eastern Europe, Russia's brief war with Georgia last August and NATO's eastward expansion.

In their joint statement, Obama and Medvedev declared that the "era when our countries viewed each other as enemies is long over."

Obama reiterated that the United States wants to "press the reset button," as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden put it at a Munich conference in February.

Analysts said Washington is seeking to improve relations with Moscow because the Bush administration's policies on Russia have not produced the desired results, but only aggregated tensions between the two countries.

Normal relations with Russia will most likely allow the United States to settle more easily many of its problems, such as Afghanistan and possibly Iran, media observers said.

Russia shares a common ground with the U.S. on some security issues as the Taliban and al-Qaida are the common foes of both countries, Alexander Shumilin, an expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said.

He said Moscow also hopes the improvement of political ties between the two countries could directly boost exchanges in economy, trade, and scientific technology, needed to overcome the financial crisis.

Medvedev and Obama acknowledged that differences remain over the planned missile defense system in Eastern Europe, saying they "discussed new possibilities for mutual international cooperation in the field."

They were also at odds over the Caucasus but agreed to work on them jointly.

NATO's further eastern expansion toward Georgia and Ukraine remains a dangerous trigger for fresh conflicts as Obama has not changed the course of the Bush administration on this issue.

Analysts said it will not be easy for the two countries, whose interests and perspectives differ significantly, to build strong relations any time soon.

Still, the negotiations about a new arms treaty were "an excellent first step," Sam Greene, deputy head of the Carnegie Moscow Center, was quoted as saying by The Moscow Times newspaper.

The nascent thaw in Russian-U.S. relations may still fall short of expectations, but the process that started in London is likely to continue, analysts said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2009)