U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton trips to Russia

Clinton, who arrived late on Monday for a two-day official visit to Russia, is scheduled to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other Russian officials, Ria Novosti reported.

Prior to the visit, the Western media speculated that Clinton would seek Russia's broader support of the international efforts to force Iran to fold its uranium enrichment program.

Clinton and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov are also expected to discuss a new treaty on strategic offensive armaments, to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1), which expires on December 5.

President Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed in July in Moscow on the outline of a deal to replace the START-1 treaty, including cutting their countries' nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000.

The START-1 treaty obliges Russia and the U.S. to reduce nuclear warheads to 6,000 and their delivery vehicles to 1,600 each. In 2002, a follow-up agreement on strategic offensive arms reduction was concluded in Moscow. The document, known as the Moscow Treaty, envisioned cuts to 1,700-2,200 warheads by December 2012.

Moscow and Washington have been involved in a series of closed-doors talks to prepare a new arms reduction deal until December. Both sides expressed hope that the new agreement would be signed before the expiration of the current treaty.

Russia is the last leg of Clinton's current European tour. She stopped in Switzerland, Ireland and Britain prior to her first visit to Russia as the top U.S. diplomat.