Russia seeks anti-missile pact with US: Interfax

Moscow, Feb 7: Russia wants Washington to confirm in a binding deal that a planned US anti-missile system is not being aimed at Russia, Interfax news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying today.

Russia has been alarmed by US plans to deploy parts of the system, designed to protect Europe from missiles fired by hostile states such as Iran or North Korea, in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The United States has said the system is not programmed to hit any targets in Russia, but top Russian officials have questioned its rationale, saying it poses a threat to Russia's national security.

''Russia is committed to continuing dialogue with the United States to reach legally binding deals which would guarantee that military potentials of both sides are not targeted against each other,'' the head of the ministry's foreign policy planning department, Alexander Kramarenko, told Interfax.

Kramarenko did not say whether the idea had already been floated in Washington, or received any response.

At the end of the Cold War, Moscow and Washington agreed they would no longer pre-programme their long-range missiles to hit specific targets in each other's countries.

But military analysts say the gesture was largely symbolic and is virtually impossible to verify.

Reuters