Geneva, Sep 21 (DPA) US and Russian officials Monday began a new round of talks on a follow-up to the Cold War-era Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) on nuclear arms limitation that expires at the end of this year.

A US official said the session in Geneva would remain open until Oct 2, much longer than had initially been anticipated.

The talks come in the wake of US President Barack Obama's announcement of the scrapping of plans for a US missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Moscow had rejected the plans, which had cast a large shadow over the nuclear arms talks.

Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev reached a 'joint understanding' earlier this year which aims to reduce the number of nuclear warheads held by each to between 1,500 and 1,675.