Russia sends conciliatory message to Obama

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev addresses a meeting of top interior ministry officials in Moscow February 6, 2009.

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday that President Barack Obama's new administration offered a "window of opportunity" to resolve deep divisions over U.S. missile shield plans in central Europe.

Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, sealed deals last year to deploy 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic, moves that Moscow says threaten its security.

In November, a day after Obama was elected, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he would order the deployment of Iskander missile systems to Russia's western outpost of Kaliningrad, near the Polish border.

Speaking at the start of the Munich Security Conference, an annual meeting of leaders to discuss foreign policy, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Medvedev was ready to reverse course if Washington reviewed its shield plans.

"President Medvedev from the very start said very clearly and unequivocally that if there are no interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic as was planned by the previous administration, clearly, there will be no Iskanders in Kaliningrad," Ivanov said.

A Russian news agency, quoting the Russian military, reported last week that Moscow had halted plans to deploy the Iskander missiles. But Ivanov is the first senior Russian to confirm that the Kremlin could go down that route.

The Bush administration said the missile shield was targeted at "rogue states" like Iran but Ivanov said it aimed to deter Russia's nuclear missile potential.

With a new U.S. president, he said a "new situation" had emerged.

"It's a window of opportunity," Ivanov said.

He said Moscow was eager to continue talks on the shield and was open to a joint assessment of threats with the United States, as well as intensifying dialogue on disarmament treaties.

BIDEN SPEECH

Among those in the audience as Ivanov spoke were Obama's National Security Adviser James Jones. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is due to speak at the conference on Saturday.

Some media have speculated he could announce a review of the missile shield deployment, although senior White House officials have played down the likelihood of that.

The conciliatory tones from Ivanov contrasted sharply with those coming out of Moscow in recent years.

Vladimir Putin, now Russian prime minister and then president, addressed the Munich conference two years ago and in one of his harshest attacks on the United States accused it of making the world a more dangerous place by pursuing policies aimed at making it "one single master."

Highlighting the difficult security relationship between the Cold War rivals, the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan said this week after securing more than $2 billion in aid and credit from Russia that it would close down a U.S. air base on its territory that supplies U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan.

Russia sees the territory of the former Soviet Union as its legitimate sphere of influence. Ties with Washington were also strained when it fought a five-day war last year with Georgia over a breakaway, pro-Russian province.

(Reporting by Noah Barkin and Kerstin Gehmlich; Editing by Angus MacSwan)