Moscow  - President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday Russia would deploy short-range Iskander missiles in its Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad in answer to US plans to site a missile defence system in Eastern Europe.

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

Medvedev, 43, addressing the country's top political elite gathered in the Kremlin's most opulent St George Hall, said the proposed amendment was not a reform to the constitution, but rather a "correction."

The basic principles of the constitution would remain unchanged, he said, proposing to extend the presidential term to six from the current four years and the term for lawmakers in Russia's lower house of parliament to five.

Moscow - Russia said Wednesday it anticipated a "fresh approach" to leave behind the "stereotypes" in relations with the United States after Barack Obama's victory in the presidential elections.

"The US election result testifies to the fact that everyone correctly counted on a fresh US approach to all the major problems," Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told news agency Interfax on Wednesday.

"We believe that the US president will himself shape the tone of relations with Russia. As to the president's advisors, they will also have the possibility to look in a new way at the old approaches and maybe to review the stereotypes that earlier were intrinsic to them," Karasin said.

Brussels - The European Union's executive body is set Wednesday to give its verdict on the progress Turkey and a number of Balkan states have made towards joining the union, and to sum up the state of the bloc's relations with Russia.

"We want to see Turkey focus truly and with determination on its European journey, with a clear sense of direction. Preparing for future membership means creating new opportunities for citizens in a more open society," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a speech Tuesday.

Warsaw- Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Tuesday criticised President Lech Kaczysnki over a joint statement with Lithuania opposing a resumption of EU negotiations with Russia.

Sikorski said Kaczynski's joint statement issued late Monday with Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus had not been cleared with the Polish government beforehand. Sikorski said he had only learned about the document from his Lithuanian colleague at the current EU foreign ministers' meeting in Marseille.

Moscow - Russian police arrested more than 300 right-wing extremists in Moscow T