The US is drawing up plans to improve ties with Russia, including comprehensive government-to-government contacts, substantial nuclear arms cuts and a watered down commitment to the Bush administration's missile defence programme.
Officials say Washington's new stance indicates that the US will treat Moscow with respect, which they hope will make co-operation easier on such issues as Iran's nuclear programme.
The shift comes at a time when US policy towards many other parts of the world is still under review, highlighting the priority the new administration gives to the Russia dossier.
Joe Biden, vice-president, signalled Washington's intent at a conference last weekend when he declared that it was time for the US and Russia to "press the reset button" on their relationship. Contacts between the two sides are intensifying ahead of a meeting between presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev in London in April, with Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, likely to meet Sergei Lavrov, her Russian counterpart, next month.
Diplomats say the US is seeking to establish regular contacts with Russia across the range of government departments, similar to Washington's strategic dialogue with China, rather than circumscribing the relationship to the departments of state and defence.
Officials from Mr Obama down have emphasised the importance of reaching an arms deal with Moscow to take the place of the Start I strategic weapons deal, which expires at the end of this year.
A senior US official told the Financial Times yesterday that the arms talks were "a way for the two governments to recast their relationship in a constructive way . . . There is widespread consensus in the US government that this is the way we ought to go".
Mr Obama said this week that it was important for the US and Russia to "lead the way" on non-proliferation, adding that he had spoken to Mr Medvedev about the importance of resuming negotiations on "reducing our nuclear arsenals in an effective way". Under a less binding treaty negotiated by former presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, both countries are due to reduce their deployed warheads to 1,700-2,200 each by 2012 and Mrs Clinton has promised to seek "deep, verifiable" further reductions.
Arms control groups and congressional Democrats such as John Kerry, Senate foreign relations committee chairman, want each side's total warheads cut to 1,000, but US diplomats emphasise the need to agree their position with the Pentagon.
Although many officials and analysts describe a US-Russian arms deal as a "low-hanging fruit", the agreement could be complicated by Moscow's objections to US plans to set up missile defence bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.
In a sign that their enthusiasm for the project has dimmed, US officials say the Obama administration will back missile defence as long as the technology is proved and is cost-effective - two provisos the Bush administration rarely emphasised. Mrs Clinton pointedly remarked this week that the US would "reconsider" the programme if Iran, whose missiles the system is intended to counteract, changed its behaviour. Some saw the statement as a bid for greater Russian pressure on Tehran.
However, analysts argue that the unpredictability of US-Russian relations has been underlined in recent days by Kyrgyzstan's declaration that it plans to close a US base in the country after Russia promised it more than $2bn in loans.
US officials say they hope the decision is not yet final, contrasting any supposed Russian push to expel the US from central Asia with an offer by Moscow to allow the transport through its territory of non-lethal aid to Nato troops in Afghanistan.
"There is still not a serious debate in Washington or Moscow about what a new partnership would be," said Dimitri Simes at the Nixon Centre in Washington. "But a strategic dialogue is the only smart way to proceed because all these issues are interconnected."
