MOSCOW - U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton held negotiations in Moscow on Monday with a top Russian official on nonproliferation issues.

At the start of a two-day visit to the Russian capital, Bolton met with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak. He was also expected to meet with Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev during the trip, a spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Moscow said.

Emerging from the Foreign Ministry building, Bolton said that he and Kislyak had exchanged opinions on a wide range of issues, including controls on weapon proliferation, Russia's help to Iran in building a nuclear reactor, North Korea's nuclear ambitions and international security concerns, the Interfax news agency reported.

They also discussed Russian President Vladimir Putin's planned visit to the United States for a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush this fall.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Bolton and Kislyak discussed strategic stability and the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Bolton's visit to Moscow comes just before the start of six-nation talks in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear program.

Delegates from the United States, Russia, China, Japan, North and South Korea are scheduled to meet in the Chinese capital to try to resolve a dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons program and the United States' insistence that Pyongyang abandon it.

Bolton will not attend the Beijing talks later this week. Pyongyang refused to accept him as the U.S. delegate after he called North Korean leader Kim Jong Il a "tyrannical dictator" and described life in North Korea as a "hellish nightmare."