US-Russian nuke deal to be signed in Prague

Ministry spokesman Filip Kanda said that Prague agreed to host the signing of the accord by US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when the negotiators reach a deal. He said negotiations have not been completed yet.

“As an ally,we have consulted with the US side on an option for us to complete the signing when a deal is done,” Kanda said. “We’ve agreed,” he said.

It was not clear if the plan for the signing ceremony had also been discussed with the Russian government.

The negotiations are still under way in Geneva. The treaty is likely to limit the number of deployed strategic warheads by the United States and Russia. Any agreement would need to be ratified by the legislatures of both countries and would still leave each with a large number of nuclear weapons,both deployed and stockpiled.

Both US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following talks in Moscow last week that a deal was near – but not done.

The expired START treaty,signed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President George H W Bush,required each country to cut its nuclear warheads by at least one-fourth,to about 6,000,and to implement procedures for verifying that each side was sticking to the agreement.

The two sides pledged to continue to respect the expired treaty’s limits on nuclear arms and allow inspectors to continue verifying that both sides were living up to the deal.