April 1 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and Russia agreed to open a new round of arms control talks aimed at cutting their weapons stockpiles and curtailing the spread of nuclear arms to Iran and North Korea.

President Barack Obama said he expects results by July, when he will visit Moscow for talks with President Dmitry Medvedev. The two met in London today and agreed to replace an existing arms-control treaty with a new pact, setting aside “cold war mentalities” and addressing disputes “openly and honestly,” according to a statement issued after the meeting.

Obama also announced he will visit China this year after receiving an invitation from President Hu Jintao during a separate meeting today. The two agreed to set up a “strategic and economic dialog” and to work against trade protectionism and to revive the world economy.

The agreement with Russia, on the eve of a summit of leaders from the Group of 20 nations, builds on a timetable U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov set out last month in Geneva. Obama is attempting to repair relations with Russia that frayed during former President George W. Bush’s administration.

‘Drift’ in Relations

“We have considerably more positions that bring us together than those that force us apart,” Medvedev said after his meeting with Obama. In recent years, he said, relations with the U.S. “drifted in the wrong direction. This is neither in the interests of the U.S.A., Russia, nor for the situation in the world.”

Obama said the agreement on pursuing a reduction of nuclear arsenals marks “the beginning of new progress” in the U.S.- Russian relationship.

Bush angered the government in Moscow by promoting a missile shield in eastern Europe and backing the inclusion of former Soviet republics including Ukraine and Georgia within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, founded to defend the U.S. and western Europe.

Obama is steering away from those issues, concentrating on areas where the U.S. and Russia have a similar agenda. In addition to the security issues, he said the two nations want to work together with other G-20 leaders on economic issues.

Mutual Interests

“There are also a broad set of common interests that we can pursue,” Obama said at a news conference today before his meeting with Medvedev. “On a whole range of issues, from Afghanistan to Iran to the topics that will be consuming most of our time here at the G-20, I think there’s great potential for concerted action. And that’s what we will be pursuing.”

Obama and Medvedev also agreed to work cooperatively toward a “verifiable denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula. On missile defense, the leaders acknowledged continuing differences over the deployment of such a system in Eastern Europe.

They explored “new possibilities for mutual international cooperation” that would take into account joint assessments of missile challenges and threats, “aimed at enhancing the security of our countries, and that of our allies and partners.”

Quick Negotiations

The two sides will have to race to complete negotiations in time to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, by the time it expires in December. They have said the goal is to reduce the number of nuclear warheads to about 1,500 for each side from the current treaty limit of 2,200.

A new accord would have to be signed by Russian and U.S. officials no later than August to provide enough time to submit it to Congress for debate and a vote on ratification, Indiana Senator Richard Lugar said earlier this week at the start of confirmation hearings for Obama’s chief arms negotiator, Rose Gottemoeller.

Gottemoeller, a former director at the National Security Council and head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Moscow center, was nominated by Obama as assistant secretary of state for verification, compliance and implementation.

“Our team will have barely four months to start and finish complex arms control negotiations,” Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee and an expert on nuclear weapons issues, said.

Obama and Medvedev met before the opening of the G-20 summit, where the main focus is halting the crisis in financial markets and agreeing on new regulations for banks.

In addition to issues of nuclear proliferation, terrorism and stability in the Middle East, Obama said the U.S. and Russia have a “mutual interest in economic stability and restoring growth around the world.”

In addition to meeting with Medvedev, Hu and U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the president and first lady Michelle Obama went to Buckingham Palace for a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II.

To contact the reporters on this story: Hans Nichols in London at hnichols2@bloomberg.net; Edwin Chen in London at echen32@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 1, 2009 14:12 EDT