"The RS-24 reinforces the military potential of the strategic forces to overcome anti-missile defence systems," the statement said. The test comes as Russia is locked in a diplomatic battle over US plans to expand a missile defence shield into central Europe, a move Moscow portrays as an attempt to tip the nuclear balance in Washington's favour.

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, a former defence minister and widely seen as a potential successor to President Vladimir Putin in 2008, said the RS-24 could overcome any such anti-missile system.

"These complexes are capable of penetrating all existing and perspective anti-missile systems. So from the point of view of defence and security, Russians can look at the future calmly," he was quoted as saying by Interfax.

The United States says the planned radar base in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in neighbouring Poland would defend Europe against potential threats from Iran and North Korea, while posing no threat to Russia.

However, President Vladimir Putin announced Moscow was freezing compliance with a European conventional weapons control treaty and has warned that a new arms race is possible.

The missile forces statement said the new rocket meets the standards of START-II missile treaties, which impose restrictions on the use of multiple warhead missiles.

"It is a genuine new missile but it uses technologies of the Topol-M," missile, a spokesman for the strategic forces told AFP. Unlike the Topol-M, the prototype RS-24 rocket is equipped with multiple independently targetable warheads to overwhelm defence systems, the statement said.

The ministry of defence refused, however, to reveal the characteristics of the new missile other than saying it was designed to replace the Soviet-era RS-18 and RS-20 rockets.

Ivan Safranchuk, director in Moscow Centre for Defence Information, described the RS-24 as "a significant modernization of Topol-M."

"The main advantage is that this is a Russian rocket. The other multiple warhead missiles that Russia were built in Ukraine. Before, there was no Russian-built multiple warhead missiles."

Military analyst Alexander Golts said the test was part of a massive push by the Russian government to catch up with the United States' strategic missile forces.

"The main military political aim of the current Russian leadership is to regain parity with the United States," he said.

earlier related report
Putin Warns Of Europe Powder Keg
Moscow (AFP) May 29 - President Vladimir Putin warned Tuesday that a planned US missile shield would make Europe a "powder keg," hours after Russia tested a new ballistic missile aimed at overcoming such defences. "We think it is damaging and dangerous to transform Europe into a powder keg and fill it with new forms of weapons," Putin said during a briefing with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates.

"It creates new unnecessary risks in the system of bilateral relations in Europe," he said.

As he criticized US plans to place elements of a new missile shield in Eastern Europe, Russian defence officials were lauding the first successful test of the new RS-24 intercontinental missile, aimed directly at breaching such defences. Fired from the north-eastern Arkhangelsk region, the multi-warhead RS-24 rocket hit its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula on the Pacific Ocean 6,000 kilometres away, the country's strategic missile forces said in a statement.

"These complexes are capable of penetrating all existing and perspective anti-missile systems," Interfax quoted deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov as saying.

Putin's comments were the latest volley in a long-running diplomatic battle over US plans to expand a missile shield into central Europe, a move Moscow portrays as an attempt to tip the nuclear balance in Washington's favour.

The United States says the planned radar base in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in neighbouring Poland would defend Europe against potential threats from Iran and North Korea, while posing no threat to Russia.

Putin increased tensions by announcing that Moscow was freezing compliance with a European conventional weapons control treaty and warned that a new arms race is possible.

On Tuesday, Russia's defence ministry refused to reveal the exact characteristics of its new missile other than saying it was designed to replace the Soviet-era RS-18 and RS-20 missiles.

The prototype RS-24 missile is equipped with multiple independently targetable warheads to overwhelm defence systems, a statement from the strategic missile forces said.

The missile forces statement said the new rocket meets the standards of START-II missile treaty, which imposes restrictions on the use of multiple warhead missiles.

Military analyst Alexander Golts said the test was part of a massive push by the Russian government to catch up with the United States' strategic missile forces.

"The main military political aim of the current Russian leadership is to regain parity with the United States," he said.

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