NATO wants to work with Russia on missile defense

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO urged Russia on Friday to work with it on missile defense and proposed looking at ways eventually to link U.S., NATO and Russian anti-missile systems.

One day after Washington scrapped a missile defense plan for Europe which Russia opposed, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Russia and the Western defense alliance should conduct a joint review of the security challenges they face.

"I would like Russia and NATO to agree to carry out a joint review of the new 21st century security challenges, to serve as a firm basis for our future cooperation," Rasmussen said in a speech in Brussels.

"We should explore the potential for linking the U.S., NATO and Russian missile defense systems at an appropriate time."

The 28-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has been developing its own plans for defense against short- to medium-range missiles and has in the past cooperated with Russia to ensure such systems can work with each other.

It had been considering moves to complement the scrapped U.S. system to extend the area it would have protected.

NATO's ties with Russia improved when the Cold War ended but deteriorated again following the alliance's eastward expansion to take in former Communist-rule countries in eastern Europe and Moscow's military intervention into Georgia last year.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, writing by Timothy Heritage; editing by Dale Hudson)