Moscow/Prague, March 20, SPA -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovwelcomed a US proposal to allow Russian monitors at the plannedmissile-defence sites in Eastern Europe that Russia views as threat,Russian news reports said Thursday. "The US side is ready to submit an entire package of confidence-building measures to convince us that this system is not directed atus," Lavrov was quoted as saying in an interview with Russiannewspaper Izvestia published Thursday. A letter from Washington following Secretary of State CondoleezzaRice's visit with Lavrov in Moscow, he said, clarified that anearlier proposal to allow for Russian monitoring of the bases wentbeyond suggesting a diplomatic presence. "We will have the possibility to watch what the radar is doing andin what actual state of readiness the base's interceptor missilesstand - both with the help of a human factor and by technical means,"Lavrov said. --SPA www.spa.gov.sa/538409