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U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reached a preliminary agreement Monday to reduce their nuclear warhead stockpiles to as few as 1,500 each.

The leaders made the announcement after holding talks in Moscow.

At present, each country has about 2,000 warheads.

The agreement also includes a commitment from both sides to lower long-range missiles for delivering nuclear bombs to between 500 and 1,110.

The agreement was just one of a number of deals established after a three-hour meeting aimed at thawing chilly relations between the two countries.

"The president and I agreed that the relationship between Russia and the United States has suffered from a sense of dread," Obama said during a news conference after his meeting with Medvedev. "We resolved to reset U.S.-Russian relations so that we can co-operate more effectively in areas of common interests. Today, after less than six months of collaboration, we have done exactly that by taking concrete steps forward on a range of issues while paving the way for more progress in the future."

Medvedev called the agreement a "reasonable compromise."

The meeting between the two leaders produced a number of other agreements, including:

• Allowing the transit of U.S. military equipment through Russia to Afghanistan. "This is a substantial contribution by Russia to our international effort and will save the United States time and resources in giving our troops the support they need," Obama said.
• Resuming co-operation between the U.S. and Russian militaries to address threats ranging from terrorism to piracy.
• Restoring a joint commission on missing American and Russian soldiers dating back to World War II.
• Broadening co-operation on a range of issues including the economy, energy, the environment, security, arms control, preventing and handling emergencies and health care. A U.S.-Russian Bilateral Presidential Commission will "serve as a new foundation for this co-operation," Obama said.

"President Medvedev and I are committed to leaving behind the suspicion and rivalry of the past so that we can advance the interests that we hold in common," Obama said. "Today, we've made meaningful progress in demonstrating though deeds and words what a more constructive U.S.-Russian relationship can look like in the 21st century."

"We must lead by example, and that's what we are doing here today," he added.

Medvedev, while slightly more cautious than Obama on repairing the relationship, was somewhat upbeat.

"This is the first but very important step in improving full-scale co-operation between our two countries, which would go to the benefit of both states," the Russian president said.

Ahead of their discussions, Medvedev said the two leaders will be "closing some of the pages of the past and opening some of the pages of the future."

This is the first full-scale U.S.-Russia summit since the early days of George Bush's presidency.

CTV's Washington Bureau Chief Paul Workman said the relationship between the two countries has been strained over the past decade.

"There's a huge amount of mistrust in Russia towards the Americans," Workman reported Monday from Washington.

"The relationship fell apart under George Bush and Obama really has to try and rebuild it."

Nuclear arms reduction

Monday's agreement will help kick start negotiations on how to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) before it expires this December.

Paul Hughes, with the U.S. Institute of Peace, said the 1991 agreement set a lot of rules on delivery systems and weapons themselves and how they are counted.

"It really gets down to the most minute detail that you can imagine -- 500 pages worth of detail," Hughes told CTV's Canada AM on Monday.

The two sides are also at odds over the U.S. pursuit for a missile-defence system in Europe, an initiative for which Bush had pushed hard.

The U.S. says it wants the system in place to protect its European allies from an attack by Iran, but Russia says the move would weaken their offensive nuclear strike abilities.

"Obama says he's willing to rethink the whole issue but he's not willing yet to abandon that missile shield program," Workman said. "That's the core of what this meeting and what this relationship is going to be all about."

After Monday's meeting, the issue appears to be unresolved.

After Russia, the U.S. president will attend G8 meetings, visit with the pope in Italy and then deliver a speech in Ghana.

With files from The Associated Press