RUSUTSU, Japan - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has lashed out at the United States over its plans for a nuclear missile shield in Europe.

Medvedev says the deal announced Tuesday to install part of the system in Czech Republic "deeply distresses" Moscow.

The Russian leader, speaking after the windup of the G8 summit in Japan, vowed a response to the planned U.S. system but stopped short of specifying what kind.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has threatened a military response if the agreement U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed in the Czech Republic is ratified.

Medvedev, sounding much like his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, bitterly denounced Washington's lack of response to Russia's concerns on the matter.

He says that instead of honest talks, the United States has been stringing Moscow along with "halfhearted negotiations that have come to nothing."

"We have repeatedly underscored - both earlier and during this summit I spoke of this - that questions of European security must be resolved in a different way," Medvedev told a news conference after the G8 summit.

The United States wants to place tracking radar in the Czech Republic and missile interceptors in Poland - two NATO countries formerly in the Soviet-controlled Warsaw Pact.

Washington contends the shield is aimed at defending a potential nuclear strike by Iran or some other "rogue" state.

Moscow has dismissed that argument, saying the shield is primarily aimed an undermining Russia's nuclear deterrent.

"We, of course, will not raise hysteria over this, but we will think of further steps in response to it," Medvedev said.

Discord on the missile shield shadowed Medvedev's talks Monday with President George W. Bush on the sidelines of the summit.

Shortly after the U.S.-Czech treaty was signed, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Moscow would be forced to initiate a military response if the deal goes ahead.

If the agreement is ratified, "we will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods," the Foreign Ministry statement said. It did not give specifics of what the response would entail.

In February, Putin said that if the plan advances, Russia could aim missiles toward prospective missile defence sites and deploy missiles in its western-most region, Kaliningrad, which borders Poland.

Russia hopes the next U.S. administration will scrap the missile plan.

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