Russia optimistic on pact with U.S.

LITTLE ROCK — Russia and the United States have "quite high" chances of reaching an agreement on cutting their strategic nuclear arsenals, said President Dmitry Medvedev.

"If by year-end we agree, and chances are quite high, I think it will be very useful for us and the entire global community," Medvedev said in a Tuesday interview that was released Sunday.

Medvedev will meet President Barack Obama on Wednesday in New York, when they attend the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly. Obama and Medvedev will review the progress of talks on a strategic arms reduction agreement that should replace the existing accord, which expires in December.

Medvedev made his remarks before Obama said Tuesday that he would scrap a plan to deploy elements of a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic in favor of a more flexible system able to protect against threats to the United States and its European allies, primarily from Iran.The original plan was a point of contention in U.S.-Russia relations.

Medvedev issued a challenge hours after Obama's election victory in November, saying he'd deploy short-range Iskander missiles in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, wedged between Poland and Lithuania, to "neutralize" the U.S. system if it were built.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin told Moscow-based Echo Moskvy radio Saturday that Russia will now drop the Kaliningrad deployment plan.

Obama said that while his decision to scrap a landbased missile-defense system in eastern Europe was based on U.S. defense needs rather than Russian objections, he said on CBS' Face the Nation program Sunday that it would be an added benefit if Russia is now "a little less paranoid" about the issue.

Medvedev told CNN that he has "quite positive relations with the new administration and personally with President Obama," and that he hopes the expected "reset" in relations between the two countries will involve not just nuclear arms agreements, but also the economic sphere, climate issues and resolving unrest in the Middle East.

The Russian president said he would welcome changes in the U.S. stance on enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Russia feels threatened by plans of its neighbors, Ukraine and Georgia, to join the 28-nation military alliance.