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WASHINGTON-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates will visit Russia March 17-18, with Russo-US ties sorely strained by US missile defense plans, officials said Wednesday.With Iran, the Middle East, and Kosovo's declaration of independence also on the agenda, Rice and Gates will meet with their counterparts and seek talks with President Vladimir Putin and president-elect Dmitry Medvedev, aides said.Putin and US President George W. Bush agreed in a telephone call last week that the talks, a follow up to a similar round in October 2007, would be "a good idea," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino."The agenda will cover a broad range of bilateral strategic issues, including missile defense,post-START arrangements,cooperation on non-proliferation as well as counterterrorism,"she said. Washington wants to adjust the verification mechanisms under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which can be renewed when it expires in December 2009, to apply to the 2002 Moscow Treaty on nuclear weapon reductions.Asked whether the discussions would also cover possible next steps in the efforts to confront Iran over its nuclear program,Perino said the topic was not on her list,but"I'm sure that they'll talk about it."Moscow angrily opposes Washington's hopes to deploy a missile defense radar in the Czech republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland by 2012 as part of a shield that Bush says will counter a possible missile launch by Iran.Russia says it views the deployment of such a system as a threat to its security, and has warned it may target the host countries-both formerly Soviet satellites-with nuclear weapons. Bush has met separately in the past two weeks with the Czech and Polish prime ministers.The Czech prime minister suggested a deal was imminent, while Poland's defense minister now says a decision is "much closer."The meeting will take place as Putin has only weeks-until Medvedev takes office May 7-to formally sign any accord with Washington.Asked whether Rice and Gates would meet with either Russian leader, a US official who requested anonymity replied: "We'll look for both of those, we'll see them."US officials note that the visit will come ahead of an early April NATO summit that they expect will further strain relations because of possible eastward expansion of the alliance designed to contain the former Soviet Union."Both presidents are going to see each other at the Bucharest summit in a few weeks, and they thought it maybe right to have their principal foreign affairs and defense leaders get together and discuss some of the issues we've been working on, to see if we can make additional progress before the NATO summit," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.Another US official, who also requested anonymity, said the timing and location of the meeting aimed to "make more forward progress" on the missile defense issue than has been possible in lower-level talks."There have been plenty of expert-level meetings.It's time for the secretaries and ministers to meet," said the official, who played down prospects for a breakthrough on the dispute.At similar talks in Moscow in October,Rice and Gates found a newly assertive Kremlin firmly resistant to Washington's missile defense plans.And Putin surprised the US officials with a blunt warning that Russia would abandon a key nuclear missile treaty, and a mocking suggestion for cooperating someday on a missile shiled "established somewhere on the moon."As in the days of Noah....
