U.S., Russia to renew talks on missile defense system

WASHINGTON, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Senior U.S. and Russian officials will meet here Wednesday to continue their effort to bridge gaps over American plans to deploy a missile defense system in eastern Europe, the State Department said Tuesday.

The scheduled talks, followed by that of last week in Moscow, will be led by U.S. arms control expert John Rood and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Kislyak, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

In January 2007, the United States proposed the installing parts of its anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move strongly opposed by Russia.

Russia warned that the deployment of anti-missile shield, which threatens Russia's security, could trigger a new arms race. But The United States insisted that the shield is designed to intercept rockets fired against it from the Middle or Far East.

The United States and Russia launched ministerial talks over, among other things, missile shield row when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited Moscow on March 17-18.

But the U.S. officials failed to overcome Russian opposition to U.S. missile defense plans in Europe.