US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell last night indicated Mr Bush and Russia's Mr Vladimir Putin would sign an agreement on nuclear arms cuts later this month, a news report said.
"I am sure that when President Bush comes to Moscow, the agreement will be signed," the Interfax news agency quoted Mr Powell as saying in an interview broadcast on Russia's ORT television.
A new agreement on weapons cuts is to be a centerpiece of Mr Bush's May 23rd-26th visit to Russia. The agreement is to outline cuts to 1,700-2,200 long-range warheads each, down from the 6,000 allowed under the 1991 START I treaty.
But negotiators so far have been unable to overcome a major sticking point - what to do with the decommissioned warheads. Moscow wants them to be destroyed, but Washington insists on storing them in case of radical changes in the security environment in the future.
AP