RUSSIA:US overtures aimed at easing Russian concerns over a planned missile defence shield fall short of Moscow's expectations, a Russian foreign ministry source has been quoted as saying.
"Our hopes have not been borne out. This is not what we were promised," Itar-Tass news agency quoted the source as saying yesterday.
The US submitted a package of documents to Russia this week setting out compromise proposals on the shield. These were first raised when US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and defence secretary Robert Gates visited Moscow in October.
"The United States has passed to us its specific proposals on missile defence," the agency quoted the source as saying. "Our first look at them has shown that over the six weeks during which the American side promised to prepare written proposals, the US position has not changed."
Washington wants to locate interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic as part of a shield it says is essential to protect Europe from rocket attacks by what is calls "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea. Russia believes the shield is targeted at its missile arsenal and poses a threat to national security. - (Reuters)