MOSCOW October 20 (Reuters) :-

Russia said on Tuesday it would be ready to freeze its total number of nuclear warheads if the United States did the same in order to extend their New START nuclear agreement by a year.

The New START accord was signed in 2010 and is due to expire in February. It is the last treaty limiting the two countries’ strategic nuclear arsenals.

The United States last week rejected a Russian proposal to unconditionally extend the pact for one year, saying that any such proposal that did not envisage freezing all nuclear warheads was a “non-starter”.