MOSCOW: Russia will deploy missiles in its western outpost of Kaliningrad in response to US plans to build an anti-missile system in Europe, President Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday.

He also used his first state-of-the-nation address since taking office in May to blame America for world turmoil, saying responsibility for ills ranging from the global financial crisis to the recent war in Georgia lay squarely with the United States.

Mr Medvedev said Russia would electronically jam elements of the proposed US system and that Moscow had scrapped plans to stand down three missile regiments. 'Earlier we had planned to decommission three missile regiments of a missile division deployed in Kozelsk and to disband this division by 2010. I have decided to refrain from these plans and we will not reform anything,' he said.

And he added: 'Besides, to neutralise - if necessary - the anti-missile system, an Iskander missile system will be deployed in the Kaliningrad region. Naturally, we also consider using for the same purpose the resources of Russia's navy.'

Parts of the US system are due to be deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move which the Kremlin says threatens Russia's security and Washington claims is needed to counter the threat of what it calls rogue nations, specifically Iran.

Kaliningrad is a Russian enclave within Poland and Lithuania.

In other hostile remarks, Mr Medvedev blamed the US for stoking the August war in Georgia. The war, in which Russia launched major military operations over the separatist South Ossetia region, was 'a consequence of the presumptuous policies of the US administration', he claimed.

Repeating Russian accusations that Washington under President George W. Bush has encroached on Moscow's sphere of influence by supporting the pro-Western leadership of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, he added: 'We will not back down in the Caucasus.'

Mr Medvedev also reiterated earlier claims that America was to blame for recent turmoil that has hit Russia's economy hard. 'The economy of the United States dragged down with it into recession the financial markets of the whole planet.'

But he failed to make any reference to Mr Barack Obama's historic victory in Tuesday's US presidential election, focusing the bulk of his address instead on domestic political and social issues.

He proposed in particular that the presidential term be extended from four to six years and that a range of other tweaks be made to the executive and legislative branches of authority at all levels in Russia. He also said that Parliament's mandate should be extended from four to five years.

President Medvedev's speech in the grand surroundings of the Kremlin's St George's Hall was his first formal state-of-the-nation address since he succeeded Mr Vladimir Putin in May.

But Mr Putin, now the Prime Minister, is widely seen as still wielding a lot of power over both foreign and domestic policies.

US-Russian relations severely deteriorated in the Putin-Bush era, putting in doubt cooperation on issues such as Iran's nuclear programme and reduction of US and Russian nuclear weapon stockpiles.

Analyst Maria Lipman, of the Carnegie Moscow Centre, said: 'There are deep problems dividing the two countries and they will not disappear because there is a new president.'

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS