WASHINGTON: The Bush administration wants talks with Russia soon on proposals to limit strategic nuclear warheads and address Moscow's concerns about a United States missile shield in Europe, a senior US official said on Thursday.

With just over two months left in the Bush administration, acting Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control John Rood told reporters: 'We are looking forward to a robust dialogue with the Russians.'

US relations with Russia plunged to a post-Cold War low during the George W. Bush presidency, especially after the Russian military intervention in US ally Georgia in August. Moscow says selfish US foreign policy sparked the war in Georgia.

Mr Rood said he was working to schedule a date to discuss the US proposals with his Russian counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, probably in Moscow. 'We are planning to meet in the near term, in the next couple of weeks,' he said.

But one US arms control expert said the Bush administration, which leaves office on Jan 20, was running out of both the time and influence it needs to strike an arms deal. The Russians 'will wait and see what the next administration (of President-elect Barack Obama) has to offer', said Mr Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.

Washington sent Moscow a proposal more than two weeks ago for a follow-on to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) of 1991 that set ceilings on the size of the Russian and US nuclear arsenals but is due to expire in December next year, Mr Rood said.

Earlier this week, Washington also sent a separate proposal to Moscow elaborating on transparency and confidence-building measures to try to assuage Russian objections to Washington's plans for a US anti-missile system in Europe, he said.

The project has angered Russia, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday pledged to station new missiles near Poland's border in response.

Parts of the US system will be deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic, and Russia has said the shield is a threat to its own security. The US says it is intended to protect against 'rogue' states like Iran.

Under the US proposals, Russian officials could go to the missile defence sites and 'see for themselves that the sites are going to serve the purpose that we envision in the United States', he said.

Mr Obama has supported work on a system to protect the US and its allies from missile attacks, but says it must be 'pragmatic and cost-effective' and cannot divert resources from other priorities until its technologies are proven. He has also said he would seek real, verifiable reductions in all US and Russian nuclear weapons, and try to extend the monitoring and verification provisions of the Start.

Mr Rood said the Bush administration's Start follow-on proposal focused on limiting nuclear warheads while the existing treaty focuses on missile delivery systems, but declined to provide details.

Mr Kimball said it was 'unfortunate' that a replacement for Start was not already on the way. 'This puts pressure on the Obama administration to sit down with the Russians quickly and work out a new treaty,' he said.

REUTERS