Russia would otherwise be forced to take steps to 'neutralise' the threat posed by such an anti-missile shield deployed in central Europe, he said.

But US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesteday rejected the call, saying that talks on the issue would continue.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, also attending the talks, insisted the proposed system was not aimed at Russia.

'I would just like to emphasise that the missile defence system being proposed...is not directed at Russia. It will have no impact on Russia's strategic deterrent,' he said.

The Kremlin had asked the US why it cannot instead use the Russian-operated early-warning Qabala radar in Azerbaijan. The US countered by saying it offered only a broad view of the horizon and would not be able to fully cope with the task.

Mr Gates said Qabala radar 'would not be useful in terms of terminal guidance for intercepting a missile'.

In a tense start to talks on a range of thorny issues, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke out on the US plans to install the missile defences in Eastern Europe even before the closed-door talks began.

Mr Putin appeared to mock the plan. 'We may decide some day to put missile defence systems on the moon, but before we get to that, we may lose a chance for agreement because of you implementing your own plans,' he said in Russian, according to an Associated Press translation.

Dr Rice and Mr Gates appeared to be taken aback by the forcefulness of Mr Putin's remarks, made in the presence of US and Russian media.

'We will try to find ways to cooperate,' Dr Rice said in response.

Mr Putin began the session with a lengthy monologue in which he said Russia might have to abandon the 1987 missile treaty with the US if it is not expanded to constrain other missile-armed countries.

Referring to the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty negotiated between the US and the former Soviet Union, he said it must be applied to other countries, including those 'located in our near vicinity'.

The fact that other countries, such as those close to Russia's borders, were developing these weapon systems made it difficult for Russia to remain a part of the treaty, Mr Putin was quoted as saying in a BBC News report.

He said the treaty must be made 'universal in nature'.

The pact eliminated the deployment of Soviet and American ballistic missiles of intermediate range and was a landmark step in arms control just two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent break-up of the Soviet Union.

Mr Putin has also threatened to suspend Russian adherence to another arms control treaty, known as the Conventional Forces in Europe pact, which limits deployment of conventional military forces.

Moscow wants it to be revised in ways that so far have been unacceptable to US and European signatories.

Shortly before the talks began at Mr Putin's country house outside the capital, Mr Lavrov had strolled into the billiards room where American reporters had gathered. Asked whether he expected any breakthroughs, he offered a perhaps prophetic quip: 'Breaks, definitely. Through or down, I don't know.'

ASSOCIATED PRESS