U.S. says Russia restores POW commission

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia restored a U.S.-Russian commission to help find missing personnel from World War II, Vietnam and Afghanistan, the White House said in a statement on Monday, five years after Moscow froze its side of the body.

An exchange of diplomatic notes during Barack Obama's first visit to Russia as U.S. President "restores in full the important work of the Joint Commission," the statement said.

The commission was set up in 1992 but Russia's side was "effectively eliminated" in June 2004, according to the web site of the U.S. Defense Department's Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO).

The DPMO said Moscow in 2006 withdrew direct access for U.S. researchers to archives containing information on the fate of U.S. personnel.

Four working groups will look to account for personnel from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War, including Soviet military personnel unaccounted for in Afghanistan, Monday's White House statement said.

Obama is to hold talks with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a two-day visit that is expected to make progress on arms cuts and cooperation on the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan.

But talks are likely to be overshadowed by deep divisions over U.S. plans to set up an anti-missile system in central Europe and NATO efforts to expand into the former Soviet Union.

(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Jon Boyle)