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Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, announcing their intention to "move beyond Cold War mentalities" and reopen arms talks at a meeting today on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in London, hope to reduce the number of nuclear warheads that each nation controls.
Reporting from Washington and London -- The United States and Russia have agreed to reopen talks about curtailing their arsenals of nuclear warheads, marking the first major arms discussions since 1997, with President Obama saying today that he has accepted an invitation to travel to Moscow in July.
The leaders plan to discuss a possible replacement for an expiring 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which limited the world's two largest nuclear arsenals to between 1,700 and 2,200 nuclear warheads. That agreement, known as START, expires on Dec. 5.


Nevertheless, any road to a new agreement would have to overcome the strain of recent disagreements over many issues, including the Bush administration's desire to deploy an anti-missile defensive shield in Poland and the Czech Republic guarding against "rogue" threats such as Iran.
Even as they spoke, raucous demonstrations began amid a heavy police presence at the Bank of England in downtown London. Placards carried demands including punishment for bankers and the removal of foreign troops from Afghanistan. Some protesters dressed in black, with kerchiefs over their faces.