The UN nuclear chief has urged the US and Russia to reduce their nuclear arsenals, moving towards a world free of atomic weapons.

"Their continued reliance on nuclear weapons as the cornerstone of their security sends the wrong message," Mohamed ElBaradei said at a conference on nuclear disarmament in Oslo Tuesday.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said nuclear disarmament talks should resume and urged the two countries to take their nuclear weapons off high alert.

"The risk of accident or miscalculation would be dramatically lowered if weapons were taken off the Cold War hair-trigger alert," he added.

The UN General Assembly's disarmament committee approved a resolution in November calling for all nuclear weapons to be taken off high alert.

AGB/DT