US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that the United States and Russia could strike a deal by early 2009 on a missile defence shield that Washington plans to base in Europe.
"I think the answer is yes," Gates told reporters when asked after meeting President Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders whether he was confident a deal could happen before US President George W. Bush's term ends in January.
"The environment in our meetings was positive today. Whether that leads to a positive conclusion remains to be seen," Gates told a press briefing also attended by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Gates started off the 25-minute briefing with upbeat remarks.
"I frankly was surprised at the relatively positive tone of the meetings" with Putin and President-elect Dmitry Medvedev, he said.
"I think we have some opportunities here. We'll see.
The US-Russia talks were a first opportunity for US officials to assess Medvedev, Putin's hand-picked successor who won a landslide election victory on March 2 and will officially begin his four-year term on May 7.
Rice and Gates were in Moscow for sensitive talks focusing on US plans to site missile defence facilities near Russia's borders in Poland and the Czech Republic — a move that has angered Moscow.
But the tone at Monday's talks appeared markedly different to a visit by Rice and Gates last October, when Putin was shown on state television berating the US officials over Washington's missile defence plans.
Moscow opposes US plans to place a missile defence radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, seeing them as a security threat and part of an effort to encircle Russia.
Washington insists the missile defence facilities could not impinge on Russia or its vast nuclear arsenal and says they are intended to protect against unfriendly states such as Iran and North Korea.
