Clinton Moscow talks to cover START, Iran, Mideast

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Moscow next week for a meeting of the quartet of Middle East mediators and talks with Russian officials about arms control and Iran's nuclear program.

The quartet, which groups the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, gathers on March 19 as Washington is trying to revive indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians after more than a year.

While the United States on Monday said both sides had agreed to such talks, Israel's announcement on Tuesday of plans to build 1,600 more homes in East Jerusalem drew widespread condemnation and appears to have imperiled the negotiations.

In a statement on Friday, the Quartet condemned the Israeli move and said that it would "closely monitor developments in Jerusalem and to keep under consideration additional steps that may be required to address the situation on the ground."

Clinton is due to arrive in Moscow on Thursday and to hold talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on efforts to negotiate a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), U.S. officials who asked not to be named said on Friday.

In July, Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed that the new treaty should cut the number of deployed nuclear warheads on each side to between 1,500 and 1,675.

Russian and U.S. negotiators have been working for months in Geneva to hammer out a new treaty. They missed a target of December 5, when START expired. Medvedev has suggested the Cold War foes could set an example for other nations by forging a deal before a nuclear nonproliferation conference in May.

A new pact could improve ties between Washington and Moscow and emphasize their commitment to nuclear disarmament at a time when major powers are pressing Iran and North Korea to renounce their nuclear ambitions.

Iran, which the United States accuses of seeking nuclear weapons, is expected to be the other major subject during Clinton's Moscow talks. Iran has said its nuclear program is solely to generate electricity and other peaceful purposes.

Russia has worked to water down three previous U.N. Security Council sanctions resolutions over Iran's nuclear programs but diplomats say it is much more open to punishing Iran now.

Earlier this month diplomats said a Western proposal for fresh sanctions included a call for restricting new Iranian banks abroad and urged "vigilance" against transactions carried out by the Iranian central bank.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)