The new administration of US President Joe Biden is working to extend the last nuclear arms control pact between the US and Russia for five years, the White House announced Thursday, ABC News reported.

The pact expires on February 5.

"This extension makes more sense when the relationship with Russia is adversarial, as it is at this time," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a briefing, calling the pact the "only remaining treaty constraining Russian nuclear forces" and "an anchor of strategic stability between our two countries."

"Even as we work with Russia to advance U.S. interests, so too we work to hold Russia to account for its reckless and adversarial actions," Psaki said at the White House.

The assessments will cover the SolarWinds hack that affected dozens of government agencies and private companies, any interference in the 2020 elections, the use of chemical weapons attack to poison opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and the possible bounties offered the Taliban to killed US troops in Afghanistan.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a 2010 pact signed by Barack Obama and known as New START, limits each side to 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads, and includes verification measures like on-site inspections and data sharing.