Russian Missile Test Adds to Arms Race Fears

Russia yesterday threatened a new cold war-style arms race with the United States by announcing that it had successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of penetrating American defenses.

Russia's hawkish first deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, said the country had tested both a new multiple-warhead intercontinental missile, the RS-24, and an improved version of its short-range Iskander missile.

He said the missiles were capable of destroying enemy systems and added: "As of today Russia has new missiles that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defense systems. In terms of defense and security, Russia can look calmly to the country's future."

The missile tests follow months of anger in Moscow over the Bush administration's determination to install parts of a controversial missile defense shield in eastern Europe.

President Vladimir Putin has been incensed by the Pentagon's plans to site missile interceptors and radar shields in Poland and the Czech Republic. The row has contributed to the worst relations between Russia and the west for 20 years.

But as well as confrontational rhetoric from Mr Putin, Russia has also been preparing a secret military response, analysts said yesterday. They said the new RS-24 missile was capable of:

· carrying multiple independent warheads, making it almost impossible to shoot down

· traveling inter-continentally to hit targets thousands of miles away

· using sophisticated navigation systems which allow the warheads to lock on to different targets

Yesterday's launch took place at the Plesetsk cosmodrome in north-west Russia. The missile successfully hit its target 3,400 miles away in far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, on Russia's Pacific coast, the Russian strategic missile forces said.

The statement said the missile would replace two aging ICBM systems - the RS-18 and RS-20, known in the west as the SS-19 Stiletto and SS-18 Satan, respectively. Separately, an upgraded and more accurate version of the Iskander-M cruise missile, was fired from southern Astrakhan.

Mr Ivanov, a potential successor to Mr Putin next year, hailed both tests as successful. He said Russia now had a "new tactical system and a new strategic system". He also signaled that Russia was preparing to upgrade its nuclear forces.

The treaty between the US and the Soviet Union banning intermediate range nuclear weapons was no longer effective, warned Mr Ivanov, Russia's former defense minister, because it did not apply to Russia's neighbors such as China.

Alexander Pikayev, an arms control expert and senior analyst at the Moscow-based Institute for World Economy and International Relations, said the development of the missile had probably been inevitable after the Bush administration unilaterally withdrew from the Soviet-era anti-ballistic missile treaty in 2002, preventing the Start-II treaty from coming into force. The treaty banned missiles with multiple warheads.

The test comes at a time of increased tension between Russia and the west over missiles and other weapons issues.

The Bush administration insists its new missile defense system is aimed at rogue missiles fired by Iran or North Korea. But Russia says the system destroys the strategic balance of forces in Europe and is a direct threat to the country's nuclear arsenal.

"We consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a powder keg," Mr Putin said yesterday when asked at a news conference with the Portuguese prime minister, Jose Socrates, about the test.

On Monday Russia called for an emergency conference in June on the key Soviet-era conventional forces in Europe treaty, which has been a source of increasing friction between Moscow and Nato.

The call follows last month's statement from Mr Putin in which he declared a moratorium on observing Russia's obligations under the treaty, which limits the number of aircraft, tanks and other non-nuclear heavy weapons around Europe. The treaty was first signed in 1990 and amended in 1999 to reflect changes since the Soviet breakup.

Russia has ratified the amended version, but the US and other Nato members have refused to do so until Moscow withdraws troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia - an issue Moscow says is unrelated.

Mr Putin warned that Russia could dump the treaty altogether if western nations refused to ratify its amended version, and the foreign ministry said on Monday that it had lodged a formal request for a conference among treaty signatories in Vienna, Austria, on June 12-15.