State Department official Daniel Fried said the agreement was reached in talks in New York between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, their first since tensions soared over the Georgia conflict last month.

Fried said both "agreed that they should have a ministerial meeting in the future, but set no date.

The United States and its P5-plus-one partners, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany, decided to call off a meeting this week in New York. They also agreed that the two governments should be in close contact to signal that the P5-plus-One process is intact.