MOSCOW, Jan 15: Moscow aired its first plans on Wednesday to develop missile defences in what analysts saw as a diplomatic manoeuvre aimed at convincing Washington to purchase Russian technology for the controversial US missile shield project.

Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov startled military observers by announcing that Russia was free to build a global missile shield rivalling that of the United States — even while conceding the military lacked the finances to do this at present.

“We will definitely develop theatre missile defence systems, as well as air-space defences” of the type mooted by Washington, Ivanov said in televised remarks.

He added that Moscow was permitted to build such a far-reaching system after the United States last year unilaterally withdrew from the cornerstone 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty which banned global missile shields.

“Formally, Russia is also free from the limits that were placed on strategic missile defence systems, by that document,” Ivanov said.

Moscow bitterly opposed US plans to build its missile shield and ditch the ABM in part because it lacks the finances to develop technology that mirror the Washington project.

Russia has powerful mid-range interceptor missiles which it has proposed incorporating into a European defence shield, and further suggested it might take part in the development of a broader shield together with the United States.

But Ivanov’s comments were the first to reveal that Russia was also sizing up plans to construct a space interceptor missiles that Moscow has feared will be first developed by Washington and then turned into an offensive weapon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in a keynote UN address in September 2000 lashed out at US plans to “militarize space.”

Ivanov remained vague about Moscow’s actual commitment to the futuristic project and appeared to concede that Russia’s stumbling economy prevented any grand plans in the short term.

“Of course, we will be basing (our decisions) on common sense and technical feasibility, as well as economic realities,” the Russian defence minister said.

He added that cooperation between Moscow and Washington was “theoretically possible.”

US President George Bush December announced plans last month to deploy a limited missile shield by 2004 that would include 10 ground-based interceptor missiles at Fort Greeley, Alaska.

Such a system is far too small to test Russia’s massive nuclear stockpile but Moscow fears Washington would expand the shield over the coming years and — with Russia too poor to replenish its aging missile arsenal — could one day nullify its nuclear threat.

Analysts said Ivanov was probably not referring to a satellite-based system that has for the moment also been rejected as too expensive and bulky by the United States.

Instead, through strong-arm tactics, Ivanov was trying to convince Washington that Russia had or would soon have the technology to shoot down incoming missile at great distances, and that its interceptors should be incorporated in US plans.

“It seems that Ivanov is talking about the experimental S-400 and the S-500s” which are still on the draft board and may not become operational for another seven to 10 years, said Ivan Safranchuk of Moscow’s Center for Defence Information.

“Russia wants to prove to the Americans that missiles can be defended with conventional weapons” that are updated in the coming years, Safranchuk said.

Ivanov said the new Russian shield is a project “for more than one year. But we are already drafting several plans.

“We have missile defence technology that nobody else in the world has,” said Ivanov.—AFP