The planned "hypersonic" system is a response to "the creation of new anti-missile defence systems by a state or a bloc of states," Colonel Baluyevsky told a press conference Thursday, in an apparent allusion to developments in the United States.

President George W. Bush's planned anti-missile shield has led the United States to renounce the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, a move which has many critics in Russia.

During recent military manoeuvres, the Russian army test-fired a "prototype" of the new system which "confirmed that we can build weapons which will render any anti-missile system defenceless against an attack by Russia's strategic forces," said Baluyevsky.

He refused reporters' prodding to disclose what rocket would be used to launch the new missile.

The new weapons "are not going to be there tomorrow," he said, adding that between now and 2010-2015 Russia would be capable of piercing existing anti-missile systems.

"We are against the creation of anti-missile systems which threaten Russia," Baluyevsky told reporters.

Russia wants to modernise its strategic arsenal and plans to equip itself with "new nuclear missile systems," by 2010, he added.

The Russian army should be capable of combatting "any aggressor".

President Vladimir Putin promised last week to develop a new generation of strategic arms to maintain its status as a nuclear power.

These arms will be "capable of hitting targets in an intercontinental scale at hypersonic speed and with high precisions," Putin said.

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