The United States will allocate $7 billion in 2011 to maintain the country's nuclear complex, $600 million more than Congress approved in 2009, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden said in a Wall Street Journal article.

"We will spend what is necessary to maintain the safety, security and effectiveness of our weapons," Biden said in the article, entitled The President's Nuclear Vision.

He said the U.S. intended to boost funding for "these important activities", intended to "ensure our security" by more than $5 billion over the next five years.

"Even in a time of tough budget decisions, these are investments we must make for our security. We are committed to working with Congress to ensure these budget increases are approved," the vice president said.

Biden said the country's nuclear facilities have been "underfunded and undervalued" for almost a decade and required "urgent attention."

"The consequences of this neglect-like the growing shortage of skilled nuclear scientists and engineers and the aging of critical facilities-have largely escaped public notice," he said.

U.S. President Barack Obama reiterated on Wednesday his pledge to work toward comprehensive nuclear disarmament.

"I have embraced the vision of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan through a strategy that reverses the spread of these weapons, and seeks a world without them," Obama said in his annual State of the Union speech.

Biden said the increase in funding the U.S. nuclear complex "will strengthen the nonproliferation regime, which is vital to holding nations like North Korea and Iran accountable when they break the rules, and deterring others from trying to do so."

The Obama administration will present the 2011 budget proposal to the U.S. Congress on February 1.

Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, agreed last year to reduce the nuclear warhead stockpile to 1,500-1,675 and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000 for each country.

A new document to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 1), which expired on December 5, has not been signed yet over disagreements on verification and control arrangements to be included in the document.

Obama and Medvedev agreed in a telephone conversation on Wednesday to order the speedy completion of the deal, which is almost ready to be signed, according to officials on both sides.