Speaking after talks with Biden at a security conference in Munich -- the highest level US-Russia meeting since President Barack Obama took office on January 20 -- Sergei Ivanov said he was "optimistic, cautiously optimistic."

"The new US administration is sending a very strong signal, and we are hearing it, for restoration of dialogue between the US and Russia," Ivanov told a news conference.

Addressing the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Biden set out Obama's foreign policy vision, saying Washington wants to turn over a new leaf with Moscow.

Crucially, the vice president said the United States would press ahead with its missile defence shield project, but only "provided the technology is proven to work and cost effective.

"We will do so in consultation with you, our NATO allies, and with Russia," he said. "It is time to press the reset button and to revisit the many areas where we can and should work together."

Asked on Sunday which aspect of Biden's speech he thought was "very positive," Ivanov told reporters in English: "Restarting the button."

Under Obama's predecessor George W. Bush, relations between the White House and the Kremlin hit lows unseen since the Cold War.

Moscow was angered by Washington's intention to base radars and interceptor rockets in Czech Republic and Poland, which Bush said would detect and shoot down incoming missiles from "rogue states" such as Iran.

Russia strongly objected to having such installations so close to its borders and feared that it was slowly being encircled by the West -- a fear stoked by the prospect of Georgia and Ukraine joining NATO.

Russia's short war in August with Georgia, and its subsequent recognition of the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, also rankled Washington.

The West has meanwhile grown critical of what it sees as growing authoritarianism and human rights violations under Vladimir Putin, its all-powerful president turned prime minister.

Biden also signalled Saturday that Obama's team is ready to consider Russian demands in negotiations -- stalled under Bush -- to renew START, the Cold War-era nuclear disarmament treaty that expires in December.

Ivanov greeted the new "open-minded" view on missile defence but said Moscow was still waiting to see whether Obama would follow through with Bush's plans to deploy anti-missile interceptors in Poland and radars in the Czech Republic.

"We welcome the new Obama administration's wish to begin an open-minded dialogue on many things, in many areas, including the question of missile defence," he said.

Ivanov added that Russia would not carry out a threat to place short-range Iskander missiles in its western Kaliningrad region -- next to Poland and Lithuania -- if the plans were dropped.

"We have always said the Iskanders... would appear in Kaliningrad only if the missile defence facilities are created in Poland and the Czech Republic in the configuration conceived by the previous US administration," Ivanov said.

"If that does not happen, then there won't be Iskanders."

Biden and Ivanov steered clear of mentioning Georgia, however, with Putin ally Ivanov saying it was "practically not discussed." Biden also used his Munich trip to meet Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

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