US hopes for Russian missile shield accord this year

The United States hopes to reach a deal with Russia by the end of the year for the deployment of a ballistic missile shield in Europe, the State Department's top arms control official said.

"We will get a missile defense agreement for cooperation with Russia," Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher said Thursday, according to the website of Foreign Policy magazine.

"This is the place where we can begin to put aside the Cold War and mutually assured destruction' and move toward mutually assured stability'."

President Dmitry Medvedev said in November that Moscow was prepared to deploy short-range Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad enclave that borders EU members Poland and Lithuania in response to the deployment of a missile shield.