The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, arrives at Moscow's Vnukovo airport to discuss nuclear disarmament and the stalled Middle East peace process. Photograph: Ivan Sekretarev/AP

Hillary Clinton arrived in Moscow this morning for talks on nuclear arms reduction and the Middle East, amid signs that the Kremlin has raised fresh objections that could further delay the signing of a new US-Russia Start treaty.

The US secretary of state is meeting Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and will tomorrow attend a meeting iof the peace mediators who comprise the Middle East quartet – the European Union, the United Nations, the US and Russia. Clinton is also seeing the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev.

For almost a year, Russian and US teams have been negotiating a historic strategic arms treaty to replace the 1991 Start agreement, which expired in early December. Despite pronouncements from both sides that a deal is close, and could be signed as early as next month, the Russians now appear to be raising fresh objections.

This morning, Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of Russia's pro-Kremlin parliament, said Moscow would refuse to ratify any new nuclear treaty unless there was an explicit link between nuclear arms reduction and the US's revised missile defence plans in Europe.

"Without it there is no chance the treaty could be ratified in the Duma," Gryzlov said.

The White House believes the two issues are separate. US officials have privately expressed growing frustration with the Russians, who appear to reach agreement on key issues, only to raise fresh problems later. There is a suspicion that Moscow is deliberately dragging out the negotiating process.

According to the New York Times, Barack Obama has telephoned Medvedev twice in the past three weeks, in a frantic effort to push the long-delayed negotiations over the finishing line. In the first call, the US president was surprised to hear Medvedev raise several new objections, including over the US's amended plans for a European missile defence system.

Obama believed negotiators had already settled the issue in Geneva, the paper said.

Continues @ Guardian UK

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