WARSAW (Dispatches)— NATO needs to develop an anti-missile defense system as a deterrence, the alliance chief said Friday, while seeking to assure Moscow that the organization posed no threat to Russia.

“We must develop an effective missile defense,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told an international conference in the Polish capital.
Rasmussen also insisted later during a press conference that “a nuclear capability will remain an essential part of a credible deterrence in the future.”
“I share the great vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.
Rasmussen told the conference that a system for protection against missiles should be part of NATO's policy of deterring threats.
“Deterrence works against rational actors but not all actors that we will have to deal with in the future will be rational.
Anti-missile defense systems already in place within the NATO alliance fall under a US shield that has missile interceptors in the United States, Greenland and Britain.
Plans for it to be extended into eastern Europe have raised serious concern in Russia.
Turning to Russia, Rasmussen said Moscow's policy towards Georgia are fuelling “profound concerns” in NATO countries.
Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in August 2008 over the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, which Russia later recognized as an independent state along with another rebel region, Abkhazia.
Rasmussen also said “Russia sent a wrong kind of signal by conducting military exercises that rehearse the invasion of a smaller NATO member,” referring to Russian and Belarus war games in September on Poland's border.
in February, the Kremlin published a strategy paper listing first among “chief outside military threats” the fact that NATO is attempting to “globalize its functions in contravention of international law.”
“Russia's new military doctrine does not reflect the real world. It contains a very outdated notion about NATO and the role of NATO,” Rasmussen said. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told the press conference that “Secretary General Rasmussen's effort to re-engage Russia are most welcome.”
Moscow denounces for missile system
Moscow has once again hit out at Washington's plans for stationing a missile system in Eastern Europe.
Russia cannot allow US plans to deploy elements of its missile system in Europe to threaten the effectiveness of its nuclear deterrent, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
The US has already begun negotiations with Romania and Bulgaria to host the system on their soil.
Lavrov has made it clear that such a system will not be accepted, as it is a threat to the effectiveness of Russia's nuclear deterrence.
Military experts say the planned missile system could be capable of hitting Russia's ballistic missiles in the next ten years.
The deployment of US interceptor missiles in the Black Sea region has caused high tension between Moscow and Washington over the past years.

photo: NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen (2ndL), Poland's FM Radoslaw Sikorski (R) and Defense Minister Bogdan Klich