US rejects offer of missile trade-off

The US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has rejected a Russian suggestion that both countries scrap their plans to place defensive missiles in eastern Europe.

The Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, said yesterday that Moscow was willing to reconsider deploying Iskander missiles in its westernmost region of Kaliningrad if Washington did not place 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic. Mr Gates said that the proposal was not acceptable to the United States.

Mr Gates also said the biggest threat to Russia's security was Iran and that Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad would lack the range to protect Russia from that danger. Mr Medvedev announced Moscow's intention to deploy the missiles a day after the US presidential election. It was "hardly the welcome a new American administration deserves," Mr Gates said. "Such provocative remarks are unnecessary and misguided."

Mr Gates added that Russia had nothing to fear from a defensive missile shield in eastern Europe.