MOSCOW, March 16 (Reuters) - A nuclear arms reduction pact between Russia and the United States could be ready for signing by late March or early April, Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Tuesday.
Russian and U.S. teams have been negotiating for months on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), which expired in December. The push is part of efforts by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev to mend ties.
"The end of March-April — those are the dates when, if the delegations firmly follow the directives of the presidents, they will finish preparing the treaty," Itar-Tass quoted Lavrov as saying.
"When and where it will be signed is for the presidents to decide," Lavrov was quoted as saying.
Lavrov’s remarks suggested the pact could be ready for signing before a nuclear security summit planned by Obama in Washington in mid-April.
Lavrov said he would discuss the arms pact with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after she arrives in Moscow on Thursday ahead of a meeting on Middle East peace efforts.
He said he expected both sides would hear reports from their negotiators ahead of the meeting, and suggested there were no serious barriers to a deal.
"I hope they will report progress, because I see no signs that there is anything wrong," state-run RIA quoted Lavrov as saying.
Meeting later in the day with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Lavrov welcomed the new Ukrainian leadership’s offer to host the treaty signing.
"We would be happy to sign the treaty … in Kiev," Lavrov said, but he repeated that the time and place were up to the presidents.
Ukraine’s new President Viktor Yanukovich, who has vowed to revive Russian ties after years of enmity under his predecessor, has cast Ukraine as a bridge between Russia and the West.
Lavrov said much of what remained to be done to prepare the pact for signing entailed putting agreed points "in treaty language" and editing the text, Russian news agencies reported.
He said the treaty itself would consist of 20 pages while an accompanying protocol was "a far more voluminous document", Interfax reported. (Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Conor Sweeney; editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
