Sergei Prikhodko also said Russia wanted to agree with the US a replacement of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) -- set to expire in early December -- by end of this year or early 2010.

"We would like it by the end of this year or beginning of next year," Prikhodko told reporters in the Kremlin.

He called the document to be signed next week "an instruction for the delegations... to work out and prepare for the signing the documents to replace the START."

He said the document planned to be signed by the two presidents will not be a legally binding agreement.

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