**US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says there has been “substantial” progress on a new nuclear disarmament deal with Russia.**Mrs Clinton said on her visit to Moscow that she believed a final agreement on a new Strategic Arms Reduction (Start) treaty would come soon.
The nations are trying to replace the 1991 Start that expired in December.
Mrs Clinton is holding two days of talks, including a key meeting on the Middle East on Friday.
Verification
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a joint press conference with Mrs Clinton that the nations were in the final stage of a new Start.
The US is said to have more than 2,000 nuclear weapons, while Russia is believed to have nearly 3,000. Both sides have agreed to cut the number of warheads they hold to between 1,500 and 1,675 each.
But there have been disagreements on verification measures, how to count weapons and launch systems.
The BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow says that Russia has for months been giving the strong impression of dragging its feet on the Start issue.
Our correspondent says that the US government is, officially, in no hurry to get a new nuclear treaty in place, but unofficially President Barack Obama wants it ready to sign before he hosts a big nuclear disarmament conference in the United States next month.
Mrs Clinton arrived in Moscow on Wednesday night for talks on Thursday and Friday.
She will be joined by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell on Friday when talks will take place between the Mid-East Quartet - the US, Russia, the UN and EU - with the current row over Israeli settlement plans for Jerusalem a key issue.
US officials have confirmed Mrs Clinton has added a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday as part of her visit. She is already meeting President Dmitry Medvedev.
The Iranian nuclear issue is likely to be high on her agenda.
On Thursday, Mr Putin said Iran’s first nuclear power plant, which Russia is building at Bushehr, could come on line as early as this summer.