US president Barack Obama has declared the United States and Russia will have a treaty on nuclear arms cuts in place by the end of the year.
Meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit, Obama and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev announced the former Cold War enemies were making good progress in negotiations on an updated pact to replace the START agreement that expires on Dec. 5.
Sitting, gesturing and leaning toward his Russian counterpart, President Obama said the pair discussed a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and described "excellent progress over the last several months."
"I'm confident that if we work hard and with a sense of urgency, we'll be able to get that done," Obama said, adding technical issues remain.
Mr Medvedev said he hoped the two countries negotiators would "finalize the text of the document by December." He also referenced technical issues that need to be hammered out.
Obama and Medvedev agreed in April to reach a new nuclear arms reduction treaty to replace and expand upon the expiring 1991 pact signed by former President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev.
During a July summit in Moscow, they further agreed to cut the number of nuclear warheads each nation possesses to between 1,500 and 1,675 within seven years.
US officials say the two nations now have agreed on the broad outlines of a new treaty, which could be signed during Obama's travels to Europe in early December to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.
AP