Moscow - Russia hopes talks between President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama next month will set a concrete agenda to replace a key nuclear control treaty set to expire in December, the foreign ministry said Friday.

"We hope that the London talks will lead to concrete instructions on what parameters and what tempo negotiations will proceed," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told journalists.

Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday he hoped his first meeting with US President Barak Obama next month put into practice the desire voiced by both sides for a new era of relations.

"We are counting on such a 'reset' and hope to see it realized," Medvedev was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.

Moscow - Russia sees no signs that Iran's nuclear programme has a military purpose, and welcomes steps taken by US President Barak Obama's administration to renew a dialogue with Tehran, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Friday.

"We still believe that at this point in time there are no signs that this programme has switched to a military purpose ... and in this we are in full solidarity with the conclusions presented in the latest report of the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency

Moscow - Azeris went to the polls in droves Wednesday to vote on whether to scrap term limits for President Ilham Aliyev and extend the family's dynastic rule over oil-rich Azerbaijan.

Opposition forces called for a boycott of the vote, but Azeri elections authorities reported a high turnout in the referendum almost certain to secure Aliyev's a prolonged seat in power. There is 25 per cent threshold for the constitutional amendment to hold.

Moscow - A Moscow court Tuesday refused to dismiss new charges of embezzlement and fraud against former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian news agencies reported.

District Court Judge Viktor Danilkin rejected defence's request that the case be thrown out, and set March 31 for the first trial hearings against Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev.

Prosecutors say the two defrauded investors in their oil major Yukos out of 890 billion rubles (25 billion dollars).

Moscow - Russia successfully sent into orbit Tuesday one of the European Space Agency's (ESA) most advanced missions to date that aims to map the Earth's gravity field, the Russian Space Forces said.

Spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying the satellite took off on the back of modified Russian ballistic missile at 1421 GMT from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in north-west Russia.

"Approximately 1.5 hours after its start, the satellite will already be on its second lap around the Earth," Zolotukhin told Interfax.