US Defense Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld said today Russia and the US no longer needed nuclear deterrence pacts such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty.
Mr Rumsfeld said Washington would go ahead with missile defence plans outlawed by the ABM pact despite Moscow's opposition.
"Here you have an agreement between two states that was developed in 1972 during the Cold War that has outlived its usefulness," he said at a meeting with Russian journalists. "I am a simple soul. I think life is a lot simpler if we pick up and go on".
Mr Rumsfeld is in Moscow for one-day talks with his Russian counterpart, Mr Sergei Ivanov, on the US missile defence system and potential major cuts in the nuclear arsenals of both nations. Russian media have said he would also meet President Vladimir Putin.
Russia is suspicious of US plans designed to protect the United States from potential attacks by rogue states and is reluctant to approve any changes to the ABM treaty.
Mr Rumsfeld said Washington's desire to get rid of the ABM treaty came from fundamental changes in bilateral relations and did not harm Russia's interests in any way.
"We don't have treaties with Mexico which keep us from bombing each other or attacking each other or . . . with Canada or with England," he said.
"The idea that a limited missile defence system ought to bother anybody is silly," he said. "The only one it's going to bother is someone who wants to lob a ballistic missile in on you, and we do not look at Russia as a country that has any desire to do that".