Russia has agreed to allow American troops and weapons bound for Afghanistan to fly over the Russian territory, providing an important new corridor for the US military as it escalates efforts to win the eight-year-old war, officials from both sides said on Friday.

The agreement, to be formally announced when US President Barack Obama visits here on Monday and Tuesday, represents one of the most concrete achievements of the effort to rebuild a relationship severely strained by last year’s war between Russia and Georgia. The new transit route will give American forces more alternatives as they encounter increasing trouble elsewhere.

“Afghanistan is one of the areas where we must cooperate,” Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Russia’s upper house of Parliament, said in an interview. Russia understands, he said, that the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan are effectively defending Russia’s southern flank.

Until now, Russia has allowed only restricted use of its territory for the Afghan war, permitting shipments of non-lethal supplies by train. Under the new agreement, American officials said, military planes carrying lethal equipment as well as troops will be allowed to make thousands of flights a year through Russian airspace.

As Obama prepared to leave on Sunday for his first visit here since taking office, negotiators were trying to work out a preliminary agreement on nuclear arms cuts that he could announce along with President Dmitry A Medvedev. But officials said they were still divided on important elements and not sure whether they would make a breakthrough in time.

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