In his talks on Tuesday with congressional lawmakers, the U.S President Barack Obama reiterated the importance of achieving U.S. Senate ratification of the new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia. Reporters asked the President's spokesman about Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's remarks yesterday concerning missile defense plans for Europe. The Russian leader warned of a new weapons race if Russia and NATO are unable to agree on a new missile defense shield for Europe and spoke of what he called deployment of a new means of attack without elaborating. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said that in Obama's meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders, he spoke about great progress made with Moscow on missile defense which he noted had previously been such a difficult issue in U.S.-Russian relations.However, asked specifically about President Medvedev's remark about a new Russian strike capability in the event of failure to agree on missile defense arrangements, Gibbs said Russia would have to provide clarification on that.In his talks with Republican lawmakers, President Obama again pressed for quick approval by the U.S. Senate of the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia.