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U.S. Drops 5 Proposals In Missile Talks With Russia - Ministry

MOSCOW. Dec 15 (Interfax) - A document the United States sent to Russia last month as a follow-up to U.S.-Russian talks in October on American plans to deploy missile defense elements in Eastern Europe omits five compromise proposals Washington made at October's talks, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

The United States offered to make a number of concessions at the October 12 talks in Moscow between the U.S. secretaries of state and defense and the Russian foreign and defense ministers, who were seeking a solution to an American-Russian dispute over the U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Russia insists that the planned missile shield would threaten its security.

One of the concessions the United States showed willingness to make at October's talks but did not mention in the November 21 document, was that it not activate interceptor missiles before there was authentic evidence of existence of ballistic missiles threatening Europe, the Russian ministry said in a report posted on its website.

Others were that American interceptors would not be placed in silos; that they would be dismantled if a missile threat were eliminated; that the United States would join forces with Russia in checking whether any missiles had been launched in the Middle East or western Asia for missile launches; and that Washington and Moscow would make joint decisions on how to react to threats of attack.

November's document put forward new proposals, however, one of them being that U.S. officers be stationed at Russian missile defense facilities, the ministry said.