MOSCOW - NATO should give Moscow legal guarantees on the missile defense issue before serious talks could be launched, a senior Russian diplomat said Wednesday.

The North Atlantic military bloc needs to provide Russia with guarantees that the missile defense program was not against Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told the Voice of Russia radio station in an interview.

"Such guarantees should include military and political criteria, rather than oral ones," Grushko said.

To be more specific, Russia should be informed about the deployment of interceptors and radio-electronic warfare, the speed of the interceptor warheads and other relevant facts and figures, he added.

Grushko praised the NATO Chicago summit as a "step forward in the right direction," as it declared the NATO-created system will not undermine the strategic balance and will not be aimed at intercepting Russian delivery means, he said.

However, more efforts need to be made to solve the thorny issue, Grushko said.

As for the future of the project, Russia suggested building a single missile defense system while the military bloc preferred building two different systems that exchange information with each other, Grushko said.

If NATO decided to build the project alone, Russia will "closely follow the evolution" of it and take necessary military and technical steps to protect the country's national interests, said the official.

Moscow has always opposed the deployment of US-led European missile defense facilities near its borders and called for legally binding guarantees from the United States and NATO that the missile shield will not target Russia.