U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday he expected the new nuclear arms deal signed with Russia to be ratified before elections to the U.S. Congress in November.

Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev signed the new arms cuts deal on April 8 in Prague. The new treaty replaced START 1, the cornerstone of a post-Cold War arms control setup that expired December 5, 2009.

The two countries, which possess about 90% of global arsenals of nuclear weapons, agreed to reduce the number of nuclear warheads to 1,550 on each side and the number of deployed and non-deployed delivery vehicles to 800 on each side.

In an interview with Vesti on Saturday program on Russia TV channel, Obama said his administration would submit the treaty to U.S. senators as soon as possible along with all necessary addenda and explanations.

Obama said he hoped U.S. senators would study the treaty quickly and agree that the document was a very important step to demonstrate how the United States and Russia were fulfilling their commitments for nuclear arms cuts under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.