MOSCOW (AP) -- President Boris Yeltsin urged the Russian parliament on Friday to approve the long-delayed START II nuclear arms reduction treaty.

Yeltsin told a meeting of top defense officials that START II must be ratified, and a follow-on agreement, START III, must be prepared, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the head of parliament's defense committee, Roman Popkovich.

START II, which would cut Russian and American nuclear stocks to a maximum of 3,500 warheads each, has languished in the lower house, the State Duma, since it was signed in 1993. START III would further reduce the number warheads to 2,000.

The speaker of the lower house of Russian parliament, Gennady Seleznyov, recently said the house was likely to consider START II in the fall.

The Duma appeared ready to ratify it earlier this year, but scrapped debate on the document indefinitely when NATO launched airstrikes on Yugoslavia, a Russian ally, on March 24.

Russia played a major role in mediating a peace deal to the Yugoslavia crisis, and with the alliance bombing campaign now officially over, the Duma appeared to be warming to the idea of ratifying the treaty once again.

The top military command supports its ratification, saying the aging warheads would have to be discarded anyway, and need to be replaced with more modern weapons.