U.S. missile defense plans for Europe will be discussed with Russia at a high-level meeting in Washington in November, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday.

The placement of U.S. missile defenses in Europe will not ease global security concerns but will undermine the global strategic balance, the Chinese foreign minister said Wednesday.

Moscow views the U.S. missile defense program in Central Europe as anti-Russian, but has sufficient capability to counter it, a top military official said Wednesday.

A Russian delegation will visit Washington July 30-31 to discuss the Russian president's proposals for the United States on missile defense cooperation in Europe, the foreign minister said Tuesday.

Azerbaijan's deputy foreign minister has said it is up to Russia and the United States to decide whether a radar base in Azerbaijan could be used in the U.S. missile-defense shield.

The president of Belarus said Tuesday he was seriously concerned about U.S. plans to deploy elements of a missile defense shield in Central Europe and about NATO's eastward expansion.

The construction of a base for U.S. interceptor missiles in Poland could begin in February 2008, a Polish deputy foreign minister said Wednesday during talks in Washington.

U.S. President George Bush is in Poland for talks with that country's president, Lech Kaczynski, and other officials, expecting to focus on U.S. plans for deploying a missile defense shield in Europe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered the United States to deploy a joint antimissile radar base in Azerbaijan. The surprise proposal, made on the sidelines of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Germany, could bring some warmth to the chill in ties over Washington's plans to build a missile-defense shield in Central Europe.

Amid a deepening chill in U.S.-Russian relations, the countries' presidents are to hold bilateral talks today on the sidelines of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Germany.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been heating up his rhetoric in the weeks leading up to the June 6-8 meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) major industrialized nations in Germany.

United States Ambassador to NATO Victoria Nuland was in Prague this week to discuss a proposed missile-defense shield with Czech officials and other NATO allies.