By Christian Lowe

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany, Jun 5 (Reuters) Group of Eight leaders seeking to focus on climate change and Africa at their summit this week may find it hard not to be distracted by the Russian bear glowering in the room.

President Vladimir Putin will arrive in this resort tomorrow after issuing a Cold War-style warning that Russia will revert to targeting missiles on Europe if the United States goes ahead with building a missile shield near its borders.

Kremlin officials say they do not want the issue to dominate the summit, and, in an apparent effort to stop the occasion disintegrating into a row over missile defence, Western capitals gave only a muted response to Putin's stark warning.

Many analysts say it was intended, at least in part, for consumption inside Russia and fits well with the hawkish mood of its powerful security establishment.

But ignoring Putin's warning will also be difficult for other G8 leaders.

''The controversial issue of missile defence is hanging over the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, even though it is not officially part of the agenda,'' Russia's Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily wrote yesterday.

The missile shield is only one of several issues that could raise sparks when Putin meets US President George W Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the other G8 leaders at this Baltic Sea resort.

Russia opposes Western plans to give Kosovo effective independence from Serbia. Putin is indignant about European allegations that he is rolling back democracy. And Russia is feuding with Britain over the murder of Russian emigre Alexander Litvinenko.

Rose Gottemoeller, head of the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow office, said there was a good chance Russia could steal the headlines away from climate change -- the issue the German hosts want to be the centrepiece of the summit.

''I think there is a bigger chance the big story will be about Russia because Kosovo and the missile shield are bound to play in the G8 context,'' said Gottemoeller, a former US State Department official who specialised in arms control.

FRANK EXCHANGES U S National Security adviser Stephen Hadley said Putin's threat on missile defence was ''not helpful.'' Other G8 countries say they will challenge Putin on the issue on the sidelines of the summit. ''It will for my part be frank,'' French President Nicolas Sarkozy said of his planned encounter with the Russian leader.

But there are reasons why the differences between Russia and the West could stay in the background at Heiligendamm.

Putin is expected to meet Bush at his family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine , early next month. The two are still likely to have a face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the summit, but they may save the hard talking about the missile shield for later.

''In the State Department we used to have an expression that a meeting was a 'nothingburger','' said Gottemoeller. ''I think that given the fact that the Kennebunkport invitation is on the table, the bilateral meeting at the summit will be a 'nothingburger'.'' On Kosovo, the United States had said it wanted a resolution on the province's future put to a vote in the U N Security Council this week, just as the G8 leaders are meeting. Russia hinted it could use its veto. But with no date set for a vote, that flare-up may be averted, at least this week.

And for all his tough talk, Kremlin aides say Putin -- who steps down when his second term ends early next year -- would prefer to be seen at his last G8 summit as an elder statesman, not an angry troublemaker.

''I think they (the G8 leaders) when they get together will primarily discuss the issues on which they can move forward positively and not those questions which are negative,'' said Igor Shuvalov, Putin's chief aide on G8 issues.

''Even if these issues are discussed they will not be the main issues,'' he said. ''Despite what some newspapers are writing about differences on certain questions, I think the summit will be successful.'' REUTERS SYU HT1515