The third formal round of negotiations on replacing the Cold War era Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Geneva "has ended", a Russian diplomat said.

It was the last scheduled session before the summit between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama in Moscow on July 6 to 8, she added.

The negotiations have been shrouded in secrecy, with both sides reluctant to even indicate when the meetings started or finished.

The United States on Tuesday pointed to progress in the talks launched last month.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly recalled that both Obama and Medvedev, want "significant reductions" in their nuclear weapons arsenals.

"That's what each... country is working towards. I think that we've made progress in the talks that we've... had so far," Kelly told reporters in Washington without elaborating.

The attempt to strike a new deal to succeed the 1991 START treaty, which expires on December 5, is regarded as a key foundation in rebuilding US-Russian ties that deteriorated during president George W. Bush's administration.

Russia has welcomed the talks as "constructive".

Medvedev stressed last week that further nuclear arms reductions could only come about if Washington addressed Moscow's "concerns" about deployment of the US missile defence shield in ex-Soviet states in eastern Europe.

"In every case, the issue of the connection between strategic offensive and defensive weapons must be definitely fixed in any agreement," he added.

Kelly played down those differences, saying: "We don't make the linkage. We've heard what... the Russian side has said.

"This is something that I believe will be worked out between the two sides," Kelly said when asked if the differences represented an impediment before the summit.

"I do believe that we will reach the goal that the two presidents have set for themselves."

Moscow has reacted angrily to the US missile defence plans, saying they were a threat to Russian security, although Washington says they are not directed against Russia and meant to protect against "rogue states" like Iran.

Disarmament experts have said they expect a deal on START to emerge by autumn, with deep, binding and verifiable destructions of nuclear arsenals that would act as a first confidence-building step between the superpowers.

Obama and Medvedev could also announce an intermediate "framework" agreement on START in Moscow.

But analysts also expect trade-offs with other issues including Russian demands on the missile shield, tactical weapons, and US hopes for cooperation on North Korea and Iran's nuclear programmes, that would ultimately be resolved separately.

After a decade of negotiation at the tail-end of the Cold War, START secured the verifiable destruction of Russian and US offensive weapons, including a complex set of cuts in nuclear warhead numbers.

Moscow and Washington subsequently agreed in 2002 on the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), also known as the Moscow Treaty, with even deeper reductions in the deployment of strategic warheads to 1,700-2,200 each by 2012.

However, SORT only sought the withdrawal of weapons, not their outright destruction, and had no verification provisions, unlike START.

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