SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Egypt) - US SECRETARY of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spent over an hour on Saturday in direct talks aimed at easing tense relations between the two superpowers.

Dr Rice and Mr Lavrov spent about 80 minutes together at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, said spokesman Sean McCormack, where they are attending Middle East diplomatic Quartet talks with Israel and Palestinian representatives.

Their face-to-face discussions follow a testing period in relations between Moscow and Washington following the August war between Russia and key US ally Georgia and strong Moscow opposition to US plans to install a missile defence shield and radar system former Soviet satellite states Poland and the Czech Republic.

They also, however, come in the wake of Mr Barack Obama's election as president-elect, and news on Saturday of telephone talks between the democratic senator and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

'I would describe the meeting as a good and productive meeting,' said Mr McCormack, who indicated that much of their time was spent discussing the Middle East peace process.

'They talked about the broad range of issues in the relationship in the context of the Sochi declaration.'

'The Declaration recognises that there will be differences between the two countries on various issues, but it highlights areas in which the two countries might cooperate.'

'The two had good discussions about the way forward on the Middle East peace process, the Six-Party talks, and Iran. On Georgia, the two reiterated their unchanged positions.'

'They also discussed START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) and missile defence, and the two agreed that experts would meet again on missile defence in the near future. For our side, that those discussions would include Mr John Rood (Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security).'

In April 2008, Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin issued a joint US-Russia Strategic Framework Declaration following their talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi covering a bilateral issues including nuclear disarmament and energy, missile defence, NATO expansion, Iran, North Korea, terrorism and trade.

During a telephone conversation, Mr Medvedev and Mr Obama spoke about 'the need to organise a meeting soon,' the Kremlin announced earlier on Saturday in a statement, without specifying a date.

The two men 'underlined the priority nature of relations between Russia and the United States, their positive development (being) not only important for the two countries themselves, but for the international community more generally,' the statement said, adding that the desire for 'international stability' demanded 'constructive and positive cooperation.' -- AFP