"There is not now and will not be any defense from such missiles," the news agency quoted Ivanov as saying.

It was not immediately clear what type of weapon Ivanov was referring to. He has however said in the past that Russia's future nuclear defenses will be based on the mobile, Topol-M rocket.

Ivanov said also that Russia was now focusing its attention on the Baluva, a sea-based strategic missile model that can be armed with a nuclear warhead.

Russia currently stores most of its heaviest, intercontinental ballistic Topol-M missiles in silos.

Ivanov has been charged with streamlining Russia's Soviet era nuclear defenses, relying more heavily on a small range of powerful weapons as thousands of old missiles become decommissioned.

"We will not be baking rockets like cakes as we did in the Soviet era," Ivanov was quoted as saying.

Russia has said on repeated occasions that it was developing missiles capable of penetrating the missile defense shield being developed by the United States, whose construction Moscow had furiously opposed.

Analysts have suggested that Russia is developing a missile which can "zigzag" while in flight and thereby dodge anti-missile defenses.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.