Gates offers Russia cooperation on missile defense

MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates offered Russia an unprecedented level of cooperation in missile defense activities on Monday, but his hosts made clear they were still against a planned missile shield in Europe.

The United States says it wants to station elements of its shield in Poland and the Czech Republic as protection from missile attacks by countries such as Iran or North Korea. But Russia says the project threatens its national security.

The dispute has badly strained relations between Moscow and Washington and prompted some officials to draw comparisons with the Cold War.

"The days of the Cold War are over and no one should seek a return to them," said Gates, on a European tour to ease concerns over U.S. missile defense plans. "We invite Russia to join our defensive endeavor as a partner."

On Sunday, a senior U.S. official travelling with Gates said the Pentagon intended to move forward on the missile shield plan, whatever the response from Russia.

The United States wants to station 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and radar equipment in the Czech Republic, at a cost of $3.5 billion.

Gates, former CIA director and career Soviet analyst at the U.S. intelligence agency, met Russian President Vladimir Putin. Afterwards, Putin spoke by telephone to U.S. President George W. Bush, the Kremlin press service said. I gave few details.

A Russian official who briefed reporters said Putin and Gates had a "serious and principled" discussion but gave no indication Moscow would take the Pentagon up on its offers of missile defense cooperation.

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Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov reacted coolly after talks with Gates earlier on Monday. "The Russian position on this issue remains unchanged," he said.

"The strategic missile defense system is a serious destabilizing factor which could have significant impact on regional and global security," Interfax quoted him as saying.

But Gates cast the meetings as productive. He said he thought Serdyukov's statement had been prepared before the meeting and did not reflect progress made during the talks.

"I don't want to put words in their mouths and I don't want to characterize this more optimistically than perhaps is warranted but I felt it was a useful meeting and I felt like we made some headway," Gates told reporters.

He said he was willing to explore sharing missile defense technology with Russia, like data from early warning systems, and cooperating "across the full spectrum of missile defense activities".

Washington has proposed sharing missile defense information with Russia in the past but the offers were rejected. Gates said the current offer went well beyond prior proposals in scope and scale, and that that could tip the Russians toward agreement.

The U.S. proposal also included an invitation to Russia to inspect missile defense installations in the United States that are similar to those proposed for Europe, U.S. officials said.

"When both the United States and Russia work together, both countries and others win. When we fail to work together, both countries may lose," said Gates.

Both Serdyukov and Gates said they had agreed to further discussions through experts.

U.S. officials cast the issue in technical, not political, terms and argue the science is simple. The systems Washington wants to put in Poland and the Czech Republic cannot be used to defeat a Russian missile, they say.

But Moscow has both technical and strategic objections. Some Russian officials say the sites are so close to Russia's borders they could harm its security.