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HAMBURG, Germany, June 11 (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin denied Sunday there was nuclear threat from potential "rogue states" in the Middle East or Asia whose existence the US has invoked to justify its controversial plan for an anti-missile shield.

In an interview with the newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Putin reiterated Moscow's opposition to the US national missile defence system, saying it was a grave strategic miscalculation.

"The threat of missiles from 'problem countries' in the Middle East or in the Asian region invoked by the US does not exist in principle, neither today nor in the near future," Putin said.

"The American position on a national missile defence system is a serious error of strategic calculation that could lead to an increase in the strategic threat to both the US and Russia, as well as other states," he stressed. Russia particularly objects to the 60-billion-dollar anti-missile system because it would breach the landmark Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), the cornerstone of arms control accords since its signature in 1972.

The American project "would lead to the destruction of the stable basis represented by the 1972 ABM accord," Putin said. The US wants to build a national missile defence system to confront the perceived threat posed by "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea. During a Moscow summit last week the two sides failed to agree on how to confront the threat posed by emerging nuclear powers. Putin has vowed to rip up all arms control accords if Washington proceeds with the system without taking Moscow's security concerns into account.

"Russia is not seeking to become a world power," the Russian leader told Welt am Sonntag: "It is a world power." The Russian leader said he would raise his own proposal of an anti-missile defence system during an official visit to Germany starting Wednesday.

Putin made a surprise proposal last Monday for a joint Russia-NATO missile defence system to protect Europe and Russia against an emerging ballistic missile threat.

"In this way a destruction of the balance of forces can be avoided and security for all European tsates ensured," he said Sunday. Moscow claims the proposal would not violate the ABM treaty. But US Defense Secretary William Cohen objected to the Russian proposal, saying it apparently leave much of Europe and the US defenceless against long-range missiles.

Asked in his interview about hopes of three Baltic states, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to join NATO, Putin reiterated Moscow's warnings against the three former constituent republics of the Soviet Union joining the western alliance.

Eastward extension of NATO would not favour European stability, and would have "very serious consequences for the continent's entire security system," Putin said.

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