In an exclusive interview with AFP, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov -- a close associate of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin -- also said Moscow was ready to facilitate talks between the United States and Iran.

"We welcome the statements from the new Obama administration that they are ready to enter into talks and complete within a year... the signing of a new Russian-US treaty on limitation of offensive strategic weapons," Ivanov said.

"We are also ready for this, undoubtedly," he added, speaking in his Moscow office ahead of an international security conference in Munich this weekend where he is scheduled to meet a range of Western officials.

Ivanov said a renewal of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), a key Cold War nuclear disarmament pact that expires in December, would send a good message to countries around the world -- including those seeking nuclear arms.

"This is a good example and a good message for other nuclear states as well as those on the verge, who have the means" to develop nuclear weapons, he said.

Talks on renewing START, which led to huge reductions of the US and Russian nuclear arsenals after its signing in 1991, stalled under the administration of former US President George W. Bush.

But in January, prior to her confirmation as US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton promised to quickly renegotiate the treaty.

Another top Russian official, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, also praised the shifting US stance on START, saying in a conference call with reporters Wednesday that it sent a "very good signal."

Russia would also be willing to help the United States start talks with Iran, Ivanov said when asked about Obama's offer of diplomatic engagement with the Islamic Republic.

"If somebody asks us to help establish direct dialogue (between Washington and Tehran), we are ready to help such dialogue get started," Ivanov said.

"We are absolutely in favour of such talks and we believe they could resolve lingering questions about the Iranian nuclear programme and other troublesome aspects of Iranian-US relations," he added.

Russia is building a nuclear power plant in Iran and has resisted Western calls for tougher sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme, which Washington believes is aimed at building atomic weapons.

Tehran maintains its nuclear programme is purely for peaceful purposes.

Ivanov spoke to AFP before leaving for the annual Munich Security Conference where he is expected to meet top Western officials including US Vice-President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

However he downplayed hopes that his meeting with de Hoop Scheffer would lead to a breakthrough in ties with NATO, which have been deeply chilly since Russia's brief war with Georgia in August.

"This will be an informal meeting and I am certain it will not lead to any public decisions," Ivanov said.

But he added: "It is perfectly clear that nobody won from the cooling of relations between Russia and NATO. It did not help in terms of solving real problems, of which there are very many.

"We are currently hoping for constructive cooperation on an equal basis," Ivanov said.

Ivanov, a former defence minister widely regarded in 2007 as a likely successor to Putin in the Kremlin, also touched on a number of other defence issues:

-- Russia is encouraged by the Obama administration's decision not to hurry with a controversial missile defence shield in Eastern Europe that Moscow views as a threat to its security, Ivanov said.

"We are hearing the signals from Washington. So far the Obama administration has preferred to pause on this question, not to hurry with it, which is a signal we view positively," he said.

-- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's proposal for a new European security architecture is needed because older treaties are outdated, Ivanov said, singling out the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty.

"It is perfectly clear that the old agreements, including the CFE Treaty, do not work anymore because they were agreed in a different era," he said.

-- Ivanov denied that Moscow had played any role in Kyrgyzstan's decision this week to close a US airbase used to transit supplies to Afghanistan.

-- Russia has no plans to build new military bases in Latin America or the Middle East, Ivanov said.

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