Moscow, March 17, SPA -- Outgoing President Vladimir Putin's successorDmitri Medvedev was to meet for the first time with top US officialson Monday for talks over disputed US plans for missile defence basesin Europe, DPA quoted news agency Interfax as reporting. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence SecretaryRobert Gates arrived in Moscow for two-day meetings with ForeignMinister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Anatoli Serdyukov inanother round of discussions from October on strategic cooperationand security issues, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said. Medvedev, who won by a landslide in March 2 elections, haspromised to follow Putin's course and appoint him prime minister,stumping analysis of possible policy differences and hisindependence. Ties between Washington and Moscow have come to a head over USplans to deploy a missile-defence system in Poland and the CzechRepublic in increasing tensions over conflicting internationalsecurity visions reminiscent of clashes over the US Cold War policyof containment. --SPA www.spa.gov.sa/537334