Putin urges talks with U S on weapons treaty

MOSCOW, June 27 (Reuters) Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the United States today to start talks on a new weapons treaty to replace the START nuclear arms reduction agreement that will expire in 2009.

''We propose to our American partners launching a negotiating process to replace the START agreement, which expires in 2009,'' Mr Putin told a meeting of Russian ambassadors and foreign ministry officials.

''Practical stagnation in the area of disarmament is of concern,'' Putin said.

The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, later named START-1, was signed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President George Bush, the father of the present U.S. president, in July 1991.

It tied the United States and Russia to reducing long-range nuclear forces by 30-40 per cent.

The 1993 START-2 agreement was only ratified by the Russian parliament in April 2000 and the Russian foreign ministry said in 2002 it no longer felt bound by the treaty after the US decision to abandon the ABM Treaty.

''I am convinced we have come to the moment when now -- and you probably see all this -- that the whole architecture of global security is being modernised,'' Putin said. ''We need new ideas and approaches.'' REUTERS HS KN2330