Moscow (PTI) As US President Barack Obama embarks on a landmark visit to Russia to "reset" bilateral relations, American plans to deploy missile shield in Europe remains an "apple of discord" between the two former cold war rivals.

Mr. Obama and President Medvedev will end a seven-year hiatus in US-Russian summitry tomorrow, with both declaring their determination repair a badly damaged relationship.

During Mr. Obama's three-day visit, the two leaders are expected to sign a framework accord on reduction of their nuclear weapons and missiles on Monday, which falls short of a legally binding pact to replace the Cold War-era Soviet-US START-1 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) expiring in December, because of Moscow's linkage with the deployment of an ABM radar in the Czech Republic and 10 killer missiles in Poland.

"Yes, we believe that these topics are interrelated and for understandable reasons: because offensive nuclear capabilities do not exist by themselves, rather they exist together with the means for defending against them, that is anti-missile defence," Mr. Medvedev said in an interview to an Italian media on the eve of Mr. Obama's arrival here.

"And if we talk about reduction, then we must understand how it correlates with defending against these capabilities, with what means we have for missile defence," the Russian leader underlined.

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