Warsaw - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - visiting Warsaw Thursday - was quoted by a Polish newspaper as saying Russia is ready to improve relations and to discuss the US anti-missile shield to be placed in Poland.

The daily Wyborcza quoted him further as saying the European Union and Russia's security were interconnected, and Russia was ready to talk about the missile shield as long as the guarantees were not "empty political gestures."

"If the US and Poland are really interested in guaranteeing that the European anti-missile base won't be aimed against Russia then we, like up until now, are ready to consider their concrete proposals," he was quoted as saying.

"The talks should, however, be about guarantees, and not empty political gestures."

Lavrov said Polish-Russian relations had "enormous potential," because of the two countries' common history, culture and economic dependence.

While Russia disagreed with Poland on the US anti-missile shield and the recent conflict in Georgia, working with the EU was key to its foreign policy, Lavrov stressed.

Lavrov said the US missile shield - to be deployed in the Czech Republic and Poland - would not for a long time have any other targets than Russian rockets. Iran's rockets, he said, constituted no threat to Europe or the US.

Lavrov was due later Thursday to meet with Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk amid tensions between the nations and renewed threats from Moscow.

His visit was the first by a senior Russian official since the conflict broke out in Georgia.

Poland signed a deal with the US last month to host 10 interceptor missiles on its soil in exchange for military aid. Moscow opposes the shield as a threat to its nuclear deterrent, despite assurances from Washington it is meant for protection against "rogue states" like Iran.

Poland also drew Russia's anger by leading several former eastern bloc countries in calling for a tough European Union (EU) stance on Russia's brief but bloody conflict with Georgia.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently recognized the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent, defying the pro-Georgian EU and US. (dpa)