Putin Appears to Soften Opposition to American Missile Shield

Vladimir Putin appeared to pave the way for a breakthrough deal within weeks on the Pentagon's contentious missile shield plans yesterday when he responded positively to an offer from George Bush. With the White House and the Kremlin preparing Putin's swan song summit with Bush at a Nato meeting in two weeks in Romania, the outgoing Russian president appeared to soften his opposition to US plans for missile interceptors and a radar site in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, and the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, met Putin and his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, in Moscow yesterday ahead of the Nato summit in Bucharest. Putin is to attend in one of his last foreign acts as Russia's president.

The US and the Czechs are keen to wind up lengthy negotiations on the missile shield, but hope to strike a deal with Moscow, while the Poles remain unconvinced, looking for stronger American security guarantees and a new air defence system to protect them from Russian threats.

It was not clear what Bush offered the Russians in a letter to Putin that softened Moscow's opposition. But US officials said there was nothing new. The Pentagon insists the shield's facilities are aimed at Iran, while Moscow maintains they could be directed at Russia's nuclear arsenal.

Washington has previously sought to allay Moscow's concerns by offering Russia inspections of the sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, suggesting Russia's participation in the shield, and delaying the new system's operability pending Iranian missile advances.

But according to Nato and European officials, the Russians are looking to broaden the international security agenda with the US beyond the missile shield by reviving an arms control dialog and offering the west logistical and transport help for the Nato effort in Afghanistan. All of this is likely to be broached at the Nato summit.

Despite the apparent race to conclude a missile shield pact, Poland remains the trickiest partner. The Poles are worried about Russia, not Iran, and are pressing Washington for beefed-up defenses, which, in turn, will increase Russian opposition.

Officials in central Europe say the entire package could yet unravel and that Washington's fall back position would be to deploy the interceptor rockets slated for Polish silos at sea, or in the UK.