NATO Secretary General George Robertson said today that the chances of agreement on US plans for a missile defence shield had increased, but insisted any talks on the project must include NATO, Russia and China.
Washington's plan to build the ballistic missile shield met fierce Russian opposition and led to fears that it could spark a new arms race and harm international disarmament agreements.
Mr Robertson told the news magazine Focus that the chances of consensus on National Missile Defence (NMD) had grown since last month because Russia had made a similar analysis of the dangers of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
But he added, in an advance copy of the interview to be published on Monday: "All ideas have to be discussed with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) partners, Moscow and Beijing."
Washington is keen to pre-empt what it sees as a threat of missile attack from what it calls states of concern or rogue states such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
"The so-called rogue states - and President Putin has also used this word - are much nearer to Russia and Europe than they are to America," Mr Robertson said, according to a German translation of his comments. "So an attack would affect Russia and Europe much more than the United States."
Asked if NATO remained solely responsible for collective defence of its members, Mr Robertson said NATO was the only organisation which could offer that kind of defence.