Nearing Arms Pact, U.S. and Russia Look Ahead - NYTimes.com: "Obama administration officials had said prior to coming to Copenhagen that they did not expect to conclude the pact to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991, known as Start, until after this trip and possibly not until early next year. Start expired on Dec. 5; the two countries have been operating on an interim agreement since.
Negotiators planned to return to Geneva and continue working through the weekend. If they do not reach a final agreement by the beginning of next week, then they plan to break for the holidays and return in January.
But even if the two sides manage to bring home a deal in coming days as they hope, that will be the easy part. After Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev of Russia sign the new pact, they plan to send negotiators back to the table next year to pursue a far more ambitious agreement tackling whole categories of nuclear weapons never before subject to international limits."
