Russia takes a positive view of signals from the new US administration that it wants to relaunch ties and Moscow is ready to work with Washington on disarmament, the Kremlin said yesterday.

"The things we have been hearing recently from the new administration with regard to the development of Russian-American relations have been met with a positive reaction in Moscow," Natalya Timakova, a mouthpiece for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, told reporters.

"We are ready for the most thorough work with our American partners on the whole agenda of bilateral relations, including on questions of disarmament," she said.

She did not say what particular signals from the White House had pleased the Kremlin, but she may have been referring to US Vice President Joe Biden, who said last week the United States wanted "to press the reset button" on ties with Moscow.

Under former US President George W. Bush, Russia and the United States clashed over Washington's plans for a missile defence shield in Europe, and over a drive to bring ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine into the Nato military alliance.

New US President Barack Obama has given no details of how he plans to deal with a newly assertive Russia, but he has spoken of the need for a more pragmatic and less ideological foreign policy.