Russia ready for nuclear-free world, Putin says

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) talks with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Moscow, June 10, 2009.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday he was in favor of a world free of nuclear weapons if other countries were willing to pursue the same goal.

Speaking at a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Putin said: "Why do we need nuclear weapons? If other nuclear states are ready for (a nuclear-weapons-free world), we are too."

U.S. President Barack Obama set out his vision for ridding the world of nuclear arms in April, declaring the United States was ready to lead steps by all states with atomic weapons to reduce their arsenals.

Obama is due in Russia next month for talks with President Dmitry Medvedev on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which expires on December 5.

Before his visit, the two sides are trying to narrow their differences. Moscow has said it wants to link the nuclear talks to U.S. plans, which it strongly opposes, to deploy an anti-missile shield in central Europe.

Steinmeier, speaking before meetings with Medvedev, Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, urged Russia to work constructively with Obama to reduce nuclear arms stockpiles.

"We need all sides to be constructive, Russia needs to be constructive," said Steinmeier, the Social Democrats' candidate for chancellor in Germany's September 27 election.

Steinmeier called on Russia to work toward easing tension with Georgia. The two countries fought a five-day war last year after Georgia attempted to retake its breakaway, pro-Russian region of South Ossetia.

Tension has remained high since Russia crushed the Georgian military and, over the objections of the United States and Europe, recognized South Ossetia and a second breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent countries.

(Reporting by Hans-Edzard Busemann; editing by Andrew Dobbie)