U.S. hints deadline could slip on Russia arms deal

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chief U.S. negotiator in arms talks with Russia said on Tuesday she was optimistic a deal to cut nuclear warheads could be reached with Moscow by year-end as planned but hinted that deadline could shift.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for verification and compliance, Rose Gottemoeller said she expected tough negotiations to renew an arms reduction treaty before the expiration date of December 5.

"I will underscore that this is a difficult task, but it is a doable task and so we need to keep our eye on the prize over the next six months and we need to work carefully," Gottemoeller told a conference organized by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"If things aren't going well, you cannot rush to the finish to get something done," said Gottemoeller, who was confirmed in her new post on Monday and will lead the U.S. negotiating team in talks on nuclear arsenals with Russia.

"We will do what we have to do to get this negotiation done but ... if necessary we will look for ways to find more time for the negotiators and so just bear that in mind," she added.

Last week President Barack Obama and Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev pledged after talks in London to replace a 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), which led to the biggest ever bilateral cuts in nuclear weapons.

The proposed arms deal would go beyond a 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), which committed both sides to cutting arsenals to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads by 2012.

TALKS TO START SOON