Medvedev signs law ratifying Russia-U.S. arms pact

"Today I signed the ratification document relating to the strategic offensive weapons treaty," Medvedev told his presidential Security Council. "This is an important event for our entire country."

New START, signed by Medvedev and President Barack Obama last April after a year of tough negotiations, is the first Russian-U.S. nuclear arms pact in almost a decade and a crucial element in a "reset" that has improved long-strained ties.

It will commit the nations with 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons to ceilings of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads in seven years, up to 30 percent lower than in the 2002 Moscow treaty.

It will limit each side to 700 deployed strategic missiles and bombers and establish verification rules, absent since the U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) expired in 2009, enabling them to keep tabs on each other's arsenals.

The U.S. Senate approved ratification last month in a victory for Obama, and Russia's Kremlin-controlled parliament gave its final approval in a unanimous upper house vote on Wednesday.

Medvedev said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would likely exchange documents starting the treaty's 10-year term in force at an upcoming meeting.

That suggested it could take place at an annual security conference being held in Munich, Germany on February 4-6. The ITAR-Tass news agency cited a Russian diplomatic source as saying the ceremony was expected to be held on February 5.

Once the treaty takes effect, the two nations are to begin exchanging information about the status of their nuclear forces and, within weeks, hold the first on-site inspections of each other's nuclear arsenals in nearly two years.

The treaty is the linchpin of Obama's campaign to improve ties with Russia, which hit a low with its 2008 war against pro-Western Georgia. The White House and Kremlin say it shows the world they are serious about nuclear disarmament.