Moscow- US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev stressed their similarities and tried to downplay former disputes Monday as the two headed into their first official bilateral summit. "The United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences," said Obama in comments carried by the Itar-Tass news agency. "If we work hard in these next few days we can make extraordinary progress that would benefit the people of both countries."
Medvedev sounded a similar note.
"We hope that as a result of our today's work, tomorrow's work and full-scale bilateral communication, we will close a number of complicated pages in the history of Russian-American relations and will open a new page," he said.
Obama and Medvedev are expected at the summit to work towards a replacement deal for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expires December 5.
The US and Russia have said that they want to reduce their nuclear warhead stockpiles to 6,000 each.
Both presidents have also expressed a desire to improve relations, which have been strained of late, over Russia's war with Georgia in the summer of 2008, and a prospective US plan to station a missile defence system in eastern Europe.
On Saturday, Gary Samore, advisor to Obama on questions of weapons of mass destruction, said in Moscow that progress on arms reduction was expected.
Medvedev has linked the disarmament deal to a cancellation of the US' missile defence plan, but appeared to be conciliatory on the issue.
Moscow newspaper Kommersant reported on Monday that the two sides had not yet ironed out their differences on whether or not a cancellation of the missile defence system should be a precondition to the nuclear reduction deal.
In addition to the armaments talks, Russia and the US are expected to sign a deal which will allow US Army transport flights to pass over Russia on the way to Afghanistan.
Until now, only rail transport carrying non-lethal goods has been allowed.
Other topics to be discussed will include the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and relations with Iran and North Korea.
Talks were set to start with only the two presidents meeting along with foreign policy aides and foreign ministers. Later, meetings were to be held with extended delegations.
The president's plane, Air Force One, touched down amid rain at the Russian government's airbase at Vnukovo on Monday morning.
On Monday Russian newspapers however expressed scepticism over whether the meeting signified a new start - or "reset" - in relations between the two states.
Sticking points include disagreements over Russia's membership of the World Trade Organization, the status of the Georgian breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the prosecution of Russian oil billionaire Mikhail Khordokovsky and other issues.
Russia has also been the only Group of Eight country to acknowledge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the clear victor in the disputed June 12 presidential election.
Obama is to meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, as well as representatives of Russian human-rights organizations. Obama has been accompanied on his trip by his wife Michelle and their two daughters.
Obama is then to fly to Italy where he will attend the annual G8 summit in L'Aquila. The summit agenda includes the global recession, climate change and the situations in Iran and the Middle East.
The G8 summit comes ahead of the larger Group of 20 planning to meet in September in the US city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to discuss the economic crisis. Obama has been at odds with his European counterparts, who want to see more regulation of US financial markets.
In Ghana, Obama plans to outline his Africa policy in a speech during his first visit as president to the continent. Obama has in years past visited Kenya, the homeland of his late father.
