MOSCOW - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Moscow Monday trying to ease Russian concerns about U.S. plans for a missile shield in Eastern Europe.

Gates was to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials about plans to install a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Russian officials remain suspicious about U.S. assertion's that the shield is intended to defend against missile threats from Iran, the Financial Times reported Monday.

Iran claims its nuclear program is for the development of energy sources but some Western countries say it is to develop atomic weapons.

"Since there aren't and won't be (Iranian missiles), then against whom is this system directed? Only against us," said Sergei Ivanov, Russia's first deputy prime minister and a former defense minister.

Ivanov told the Financial Times he saw "no grounds" for Russia to join the United States in creating a joint antimissile system.

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