Moscow - President Dmitry Medvedev nominally said Wednesday he hoped for improved ties with the new US president, but also that Russia would fight US missile defence plans by deploying missiles in its European enclave of Kaliningrad.

In his first state-of-the-nation speech since taking office in May, Medvedev did not mention president-elect Barack Obama by name and lashed out at the United States' seeming to challenge its policy on all fronts.

Berlin - A Russian forward deployment of short-range Iskander missiles is "the wrong signal," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin Wednesday.

Moscow said earlier in the day the weapons would be moved to its Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, close to Poland.

Speaking after meeting with Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller, Steinmeier rejected what he called the "new mentality of blocs."

Warsaw - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday dismissed a Russian threat to deploy missiles near the Polish border to counter a planned US missile defence system.

"I wouldn't attach too much weight to these types of declarations," the Polish Press Agency quotes Tusk as saying.

Hours earlier, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said Moscow would deploy short-range missiles in its Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad.

Moscow- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for the extension the presidential term from four to six years in his first state-of-the-nation address since succeeding Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.

Medvedev, 43, addressing the country's top political elite, gathered in the Kremlin's opulent St George Hall, said the change would allow the government to carry through more effectively with its reforms.

Brussels - The European Union should re-open talks within days on a strategic deal with Russia which it froze following Russia's invasion of Georgia, the bloc's executive said Wednesday.

"It is the view of the (European) Commission that the next negotiating sessions should be scheduled now," a report on the EU's relationship with Russia from the Brussels-based body said.

Brussels- The European Union should re-open talks on a strategic deal with Russia which it froze following Russia's invasion of Georgia as soon as possible, the bloc's executive said Wednesday.

"It is the view of the (European) Commission that the next negotiating sessions should be scheduled now," a report from the Brussels-based body on the EU's relationship with Russia said.