Russia vows to "cut off" threats from US missile shield

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia vowed on Sunday to "cut off" potential threats from a planned US missile shield near its borders, while calling instead for renewed work on a joint NATO-Russia missile defense system.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slammed a US plan to deploy missile defense hardware in Poland and the Czech Republic, which has infuriated Moscow in spite of Washington's insistence it poses Russia no threat.

"If strategic components of the American arsenal appear in Europe near our borders, we are obliged to... cut off potential threats from that deployment," Lavrov said in comments broadcast on the state-run television channel Vesti-24.

After repeated warnings from Russia that the US plan would set off a new "arms race," Russia tested a new multi-warhead missile last week that President Vladimir Putin said was a direct response to US actions.

Tensions over the plan have helped send relations between the two states to what many analysts call a post-Cold War low just before Putin and US President George W. Bush meet at this week's Group of Eight summit.