WARSAW, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Polish Defense Minister Aleksander Szczyglo met here Tuesday with Russian Ambassador to Poland Vladimir Grinin to discuss the deployment in Poland of elements of the U.S. anti-missile shield.

    The minister told Polish PAP news agency that the "talk was held in a friendly climate."

    During the meet, Szczyglo stressed that Poland was interested in the U.S. proposal and expressed the hope that the Polish-U.S. agreement would be of bilateral nature. He assured the Russian side that the deployment posed no threat to the Russian Federation.

    Grinin tried to persuade the Polish minister that in the Russian belief the deployment may violate to-date balance of forces. He stressed that Russia is interested in a joint evaluation of possible threats to the EU, NATO and the Russian Federation as well as in the working out a common system to counteract them.

    Also on Tuesday, Poland's National Security Bureau head General Wladyslaw Stasiak met here with visiting General Henry A. Obering, the director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, to discuss the U.S. anti-missile defense system.

    The two also discussed a U.S. proposal made by Washington to the Polish authorities to deploy elements of its anti-missal system in Poland, the PAP news agency reported.

    The United States in January proposed installing parts of its anti-missile shield in central Europe, including some interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic. Plans are strongly criticized by Russia which says they pose a threat to its security. ¡¡