U.S. President George Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have described as constructive their talks about Russian objections to U.S. plans to build a missile defense system in Europe.

U.S. President George W. Bush says Russia poses no threat to Europe, despite a warning by Moscow to target the continent if the United States deploys elements of a missile shield in Central Europe.

As tensions between Russia and the West over U.S. plans to deploy anti-missile interceptors in Poland are growing, Polish President Kaczynski visits NATO headquarters Wednesday.

Riki Ellsion, President of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA) http://www.missiledefenseadvocacy.org was pleased that President George W. Bush stood strong and called out President Putin today on Missile Defense before leaving to Germany where they are going to meet at the Group of 8 Leading Industrial Nations summit next week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that as Washington was suspected of triggering new arms race, meaning planned deployment of U.S. missile defense installations, Russia tested its new missiles.

A senior U.S. State Department official says President George W. Bush's offer to cooperate with Russia on missile defense still stands, despite Moscow's contention it will not change its opposition to the project.

U.S. President George W. Bush says much tension exists between the West and Russia. In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Bush said his message for President Vladimir Putin was that Russia's "interests lie in the West."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has won agreement from President Vladimir Putin to tone down Russian tough talk in an effort to improve strained ties, though neither side gave any ground on major disagreements over missile defense and Kosovo.

U.S. secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opened talks with Russia after acknowledging growing tensions between two countries but rejecting suggestions about the new Cold War.

NATO foreign ministers will attempt to look beyond military solutions in Afghanistan at their informal meeting in Oslo on April 26-27, according to an alliance official. NATO officials are keen to stress that the alliance's mission in Afghanistan remains its most important engagement.

The NATO allies have agreed that Europe faces a missile threat and have backed a U.S. offer to cooperate with Russia on defense against such weapons. An alliance spokesman, James Appathurai, says all 26 NATO countries agreed that Europe faces the threat, noting that some called it a growing danger.

The aerospace and defense industry publication, Aviation Week, reports new U.S. intelligence findings that China is stepping up its tests of medium and long-range ballistic missiles. The report comes in the issue of the magazine dated Monday. VOA's Stephanie Ho reports from Washington.