Russia is "actively preparing" for negotiations with the United States to clinch the START III arms reduction accord, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was cited as saying Saturday by Interfax.

He said Russian President Vladimir Putin had presented "detailed proposals" for the negotiations to his U.S. counterpart, Bill Clinton, in the course of July's G8 summit in Okinawa.

Ivanov added that the nuclear non-proliferation issue "will be the focus of Russian president's and foreign minister's meetings at their upcoming Millennium Summit in New York and during Putin's visit to Japan."

On Friday, Putin signaled a thaw in Russia's frosty dispute with the United States over nuclear arms after Clinton announced that he would leave the decision on a controversial national missile defense (NMD) system to his successor in the White House.

Moscow has campaigned for months against the deployment of such a missile defense shield, warning that such a move could spark a new arms race and saying it would violate the cornerstone 1972 Anti-BallisticMissile (ABM) treaty, which bans the deployment of national nuclear defense systems.

Ivanov stressed Saturday that the next round of arms reduction talks could only proceed within the terms of the 1972 accord.

"The conclusion of START-III is possible only provided that the 1972 ABM treaty remains inviolable," he said.

Russia and the United States had previously agreed to conduct negotiations on the basis of a reduction to 2,000-2,500 warheads each.

However, Moscow is calling for even deeper cuts, suggesting a ceiling of 1,000-1,500 warheads, but US military leaders have so far balked at reducing their stockpiles to such levels.

Putin, who leaves Sunday for a three-day visit to Japan, is due to hold talks with Clinton on the sidelines of next week's UN Millennium summit in New York.

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