MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says a new treaty limiting U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals could be signed within two or three weeks.

Russian state news agencies cite Lavrov as saying Tuesday that "there is every chance" that will happen.

Lavrov spoke as U.S. and Russian negotiators resumed talks in Geneva on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expired in December.

Russian officials have said a main sticking point concerns U.S. plans to build a missile shield in eastern Europe.