A total of 349 deputies in the 450-strong Duma voted in favour of the ratification bill for the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), a Duma spokesman told AFP.

The START treaty is at the heart of efforts by Moscow and Washington to improve ties after years of bickering and was signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama in Prague last year.

After much deliberation, the US lawmakers approved the treaty last month and the Kremlin pledged that the Russian parliament would follow suit.

Despite repeated criticism from two of the political parties represented in the Duma -- the Communists and the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic party -- there is little doubt the Russian parliament, dominated by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, will rubber-stamp the accord.

The Duma gave its initial backing to the new START on December 24 and the third and final reading of the bill is expected later this month.

The bill will then have to be approved by the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council.

Earlier in the day Russia's lawmakers approved non-binding amendments to the bill countering those made by the US Senate and stipulating the terms and conditions under which the agreement will be implemented.

According to the text of the amendments posted on the Duma website, they stress a link between offensive and defensive weapons -- a stipulation Moscow has always insisted upon.

The conditions also include the need to maintain nuclear forces at the level necessary to ensure Russia's security through the development, production and deployment" of new types and new kinds of strategic offensive weapons."

"That's our answer to the US congressmen," Andrei Klimov, deputy head of the Duma international affairs committee, told AFP. "Each side asserted a right to its own understanding of the text of (the treaty)."

The Communists however said the amendments pushed through by the United Russia were too vague.

"The amendments lack the most important thing -- the qualitative and quantitative parameters of the development of Russia's strategic nuclear forces for the period of the treaty," Communist lawmaker Leonid Kalashnikov said in a statement.

"The authors of the amendments to the ratification bill for some reason are not at all concerned what weapons exactly Russia will be cutting within the framework of the implementation of the treaty," he said.

A total of 341 Duma deputies voted in favour of the amendments, the Duma spokesman said.

Prior to approving the treaty last month, US lawmakers attached non-binding amendments to the resolution to recommit Washington to deploying a missile defence system, to modernising its nuclear arsenal, and to seeking new talks with Russia on curbing tactical nuclear weapons.

The agreement limits each side to 1,550 deployed warheads and 700 deployed long-range missiles -- including those fired from submarines -- and heavy bombers.

The two nuclear superpowers may also have up to 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers and bombers.

But US senators argue that the treaty does nothing to prevent Washington from deploying a new missile defence system that Moscow fears may one day be expanded to hurt its own nuclear capabilities.

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