Rice to visit Russia, hopes to calm disputes

WASHINGTON, May 7 (Reuters) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Moscow next week as the United States seeks to calm disputes with Russia on missile defense, Kosovo and other issues, the State Department said today.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Rice would travel to Moscow on May 14 and 15, saying her talks with senior Russian leaders would cover topics including ''Iran, Kosovo, Israeli-Palestinian concerns and missile defense.'' Washington has angered Russia and unsettled some European allies with a plan to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic from 2012 to help shield Europe from possible missile attack by nations such as Iran.

While European concerns about the missile shield appear to be easing, Russia has yet to be persuaded by US arguments that the system is no threat to its nuclear deterrent and has so far rebuffed US invitations to cooperate on the system.

Washington also is at loggerheads with Moscow because of a UN plan for supervised independence for Kosovo.

Russia, which holds a veto on the UN Security Council, has repeatedly said it will not accept a solution that is not acceptable to Serbia, which adamantly opposes any form of independence for Kosovo.

While the United States and Russia are at odds on many issues, notably what Washington regards as Russian backsliding on democratic freedoms, they also cooperate, notably in seeking to rein in Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs.

''There are a lot of issues to talk about in the US-Russia strategic relationship, spanning from nuclear nonproliferation to missile defense to the development of democracy in Russia,'' McCormack said.

McCormack said it was up to the Russians whether Rice would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, although he said Putin has seen her on such visits in the past.

Putin caught the Bush administration off guard with a February 10 speech in Munich in which he accused the United States of seeking to impose its will on the world.

McCormack said he did not know if Rice would raise the speech but added: ''I am sure they are going to talk about the tone and tenor and substance of the US-Russia relationship.'' Reuters SBA VP0335