RUSSIA:VLADIMIR PUTIN hinted at a breakthrough deal within weeks on the Pentagon's contentious missile shield plans yesterday when he responded positively to an offer from US president George Bush.
With the White House and the Kremlin preparing Mr Putin's swansong summit with Mr Bush at a Nato meeting in two weeks in Romania, the Russian president appeared to soften his opposition to US plans for missile interceptors and a radar site in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, and the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, met Mr Putin and his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, in Moscow yesterday.
The US and the Czechs are keen to wind up lengthy talks on the missile shield, but hope to strike a deal with Moscow, while the Poles remain unconvinced, looking for stronger US security guarantees and an air defence system to protect them from Russia.
It was not clear what Mr Bush offered the Russians in a letter to Mr Putin that softened Moscow's opposition. But US officials said there was nothing new. The Pentagon insists the shield's facilities are aimed at Iran, while Moscow maintains they could be directed at Russia's nuclear arsenal.
Washington has previously sought to allay Moscow's concerns by offering Russia inspections of the sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, suggesting Russia's participation in the shield, and delaying the new system's operability pending Iranian missile advances.
- (Guardian service)