Top U.S. military commander to visit Russia on June 25-28

"During the visit, Mullen will meet with Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and the head of the Russian General Staff, Gen. Nikolai Makarov," the ministry said in a statement.

The statement said the sides would discuss urgent issues of global and regional security, as well as bilateral military ties.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has suggested that Russian facilities could be part of the missile defense system, but Moscow has rejected this idea, saying there could be no partnership "in building facilities that are essentially designed to counter Russia's strategic deterrence forces."

Meanwhile, Russia and the U.S. are involved in talks on a new strategic arms reduction deal to replace the START 1 treaty, which expires in December.

Moscow, which proposed a new arms reduction agreement in 2005, expects Washington to agree on a deal that would restrict not only the numbers of nuclear warheads, but also place limits on all existing kinds of delivery vehicles.

However, Russia has insisted that the deployment of a planned U.S. missile defense system in Europe would greatly impede progress on strategic arms reductions; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

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