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U.S. Senate may not approve START until early 2011


    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It may be early next year before the U.S. Senate approves a major arms reduction treaty that President Barack Obama signed last week with Russia, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday.

    Reid, a Democrat, said he could not imagine Republicans rejecting the pact, which would reduce the deployed nuclear warheads of the United States and Russia by about 30 percent and follows up on the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

    Senate consent is required for the new START treaty to go into force. But the chamber faces a large workload between now and congressional elections in November, including tougher regulation of the financial industry and confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee.

    Obama's Democrats have a majority in the Senate but not the required 67 votes, or the two-thirds, needed to pass a treaty, so some Republican votes will be needed.

    "I am going to do everything I can to advance this as quickly as I can," Reid told reporters when asked about the prospects for the START treaty.

    "It may take until the first of the year to get it done. But I think it's important that we try to get this done. ... This treaty is important. And ... although I've been surprised in the past, I can't imagine the Republicans saying no to this," he said.

    Reid spokesman Jim Manley said that Reid still expected the Senate to approve the pact by the end of this year.

    The treaty is expected to be submitted to the Senate in May and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry says he wants to hold hearings soon afterward.

    Republicans have not said they will oppose the treaty, but some of them have warned it will be difficult for the Senate to approve the pact without a program to modernize the remaining U.S. nuclear weapons.

    (Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Peter Cooney)