WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama's administration and Russia have reached a deal to slash their nuclear weapons stockpiles, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Arms control negotiators from the two countries reached an "agreement in principle" on the first nuclear arms reduction pact in nearly 20 years, the newspaper said citing administration and arms control officials.

It said the agreement would lower the ceiling for deployed nuclear weapons from the 2,200 target set in 1991 to between 1,500 and 1,675, while the number of nuclear delivery systems would fall to between 700 and 800 a side.

Gordon Duguid, a State Department spokesman, could not immediately confirm the report.