U.S., Russia agree in principle on nuclear treaty

U.S. and Russian arms-control negotiators have reached an "agreement in principle" on the first nuclear arms reduction treaty in nearly two decades, administration and arms control officials said Tuesday. Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Ploughshares-funded Arms Control Association, said the deal will clear the way for the broader Obama nuclear agenda. When the accord is formally unveiled, both sides are expected to announce "consultations" on more ambitious arms talks that would further bring down strategic nuclear forces and limit the deployment of smaller, battlefield nuclear weapons.

Rose Gottemoeller, the Obama administration's lead negotiator, flew to Geneva Monday to help draft the final text and begin what could still be an arduous process of translating the agreement into treaty language, an administration official said. "There may be finessing and fine-tuning, but the issues, from our perspective, are all addressed," he added.