The Defense Ministry confirmed that Igor Sergeyev would meet his U.S. counterpart William Cohen next month but said a final date had still to be fixed.

Interfax, quoting Leonid Ivashov, who heads the Russian Defence Ministry's international cooperation division, said the problems of Russian peacekeepers in Kosovo would top the agenda.

Kosovo Albanians have been barring Russian peacekeepers from the town of Orahovac saying they are biased in favor of the Serbs. Washington has urged them to stop their blockade and allow the Russians to carry out their duties.

Ivashov said Cohen and Sergeyev would also discuss cooperation on arms control and tackling the millennium computer bug.

The Kremlin is still trying to persuade the Communist-dominated parliament to ratify the 1993 START-2 strategic arms reduction treaty and wants to start talks on a START-3 treaty which would impose further cuts in nuclear arsenals.

But Moscow is also concerned about U.S. plans to develop an anti-ballistic missile defense shield to protect its own troops and allies in the Far East like Japan against attack from "rogue states" such as North Korea.

Russia says such a shield would violate the 1972 anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty which it regards as a central pillar of international arms control.

The arms control issue, along with the Kosovo crisis, has soured relations between Moscow and Washington. Russia fiercely opposed NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia but played an active role in mediating between the alliance and Belgrade.

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