Moscow, 22 August: The USA may yet abandon its plans to deploy missile defence components in Eastern Europe in the future, the chairman of the Federation Council's defence and security committee, Viktor Ozerov, has said. (Passage omitted: background)

"The negotiations between the chief of Russia's General Staff and the Czech defence minister (as received: should be first deputy defence minister) and the scheduled consultations on the Qabala radar station indicate that there is an ongoing search for arguments in favour of the Russian proposal," Ozerov told RIA Novosti.

When commenting on the information that there will be tripartite talks in Baku in September on the joint use of the Qabala radar station, the senator said that this indicates the emergence of a dialogue between Russia and the USA. "The very fact that the USA has responded to the Russian proposal to hold consultations on the whole range of issues related to the deployment of missile defence components in Europe and the use of the Qabala radar station as an alternative to it is undoubtedly something positive," Ozerov said.

He also mentioned that Prague had recently said the final decision on missile defence components on its territory would not be made until 2008. "This also gives one hope," Ozerov said.

He said that he was putting certain hopes on the consultations in Baku. "When experts meet, they speak in a scientific language, which is more concrete than the language of politics, even at the presidential level," the senator said.

He also mentioned that Russia's President Vladimir Putin had said that Russia was ready to offer the USA (to use) Russian radar stations as well.

At the same time Ozerov warned the Russian side that the US side should not be allowed to use the consultations in Baku as a smoke screen for the continued implementation of its plans to deploy missile defence components in Eastern Europe.

"It cannot be the case that the consultations become a mere political background and the USA continues to implement its plans outside of the talks, so Russia should closely and carefully monitor how the USA is acting in Poland and the Czech Republic," Ozerov believes.