Geneva - US and Russian officials on Monday began a new round of talks on a follow-up to the Cold War-era Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) on nuclear arms limitation that expires at the end of this year.

A US official said the session in Geneva would remain open until October 2, much longer than had initially been anticipated.

The talks come in the wake of US President Barack Obama's announcement of the scrapping of plans for a US missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Moscow had rejected the plans, which had cast a large shadow over the nuclear arms talks.

Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev reached a "joint understanding" earlier this year which aims to reduce the number of nuclear warheads held by each to between 1,500 and 1,675. The maximum is 2,000 under START.

The two nuclear powers would also strive to reduce the number of missiles capable of delivering warheads from the current maximum of 1,600 allowed for each side to between 500 and 1,100.

The latest round of US-Russia talks is expected to focus on trying to pin more concrete numbers on the general range.

However, officials have said time is slipping away, as the December expiry date for START looms. The Washington Post reported over the weekend that in the US there was no longer a strong belief that a new deal could be reached before
2010.

If that were to happen, both sides would likely aim to extend the existing agreement until they could hammer out a follow-up treaty. (dpa)