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Former leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev has criticized President Donald Trump's plan to pull the United States from a Cold War-era nuclear arms treaty as "unacceptable" and "irresponsible," CNN reports, citing Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti.

Trump made the announcement on Saturday, accusing Russia of repeatedly breaking the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which Gorbachev signed in 1987 with then-US President Ronald Reagan.

The signing was seen as a watershed moment during the final days of the Cold War that has helped eliminate thousands of land-based missiles from the US and Russia. Trump's plans have raised concerns of a renewed or intensified arms race between the two countries.

"I think this is unacceptable," RIA Novosti quoted Gorbachev as saying. "It was a great victory that we managed to get as far as making decisions enshrined in these ... treaties that got rid of nuclear weapons and warheads."

Gorbachev also called on Moscow and Washington to try and reach an agreement while Bolton is in the country.

"I don't know whether they will succeed or not, but I think it's not too late yet," he said, adding that Trump's decision was "very irresponsible."

The treaty saw thousands of missiles with ranges between 300 and 3,400 miles destroyed, and banned the development and testing of such weapons.