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The White House said Tuesday that the U.S. missile shield in Europe does not prevent the United States and Russia to conclude a new treaty on nuclear disarmament.

“The idea that this could be an obstacle to the ongoing work with START is not accurate,” said the spokesman of the White House Robert Gibbs to the press, adding that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had not presented this issue as an obstacle in his recent telephone conversation with President Barack Obama.

Tuesday morning, General Nikolai Makarov, Chief of Staff of Russian armed, said the U.S. missile shield in Europe threatens the national security of Russia and has a very negative effect on negotiations for a new treaty to replace the treaty to reduce strategic arms (START), which expired last December 5.

On September 17, 2009, President Obama announced the abandonment of the missile defense program’s controversial Bush era, considered by the Kremlin as a serious threat to the national interests of Russia, but found “a gradual approach and adaptive” for missile defense on the continent.

The Pentagon said that the new defense plan, which should be applied from 2011 to 2020, support the homeland defense of the United States against the threat of ballistic missiles at long range, enhance force protection and civilian personnel deployed U.S. and that of their families who accompagent against the missile threat from Iran.

“The changing architecture of a missile defense plan that protected Europe and has protected this country in a better way was announced last September, so far we have had extensive negotiations for months,” said Gibbs.

According to the spokesman, the U.S. and Russian negotiators are trying to develop a new treaty, under which the number of nuclear warheads for each party must be reduced between 1500 and 1675, while the number of launchers will be limited between 500 to 1,000.

President Obama and President Medvedev see the screening process as an essential step in strengthening mutual trust between the two countries and vowed to work together to ensure that a new treaty of strategic arms control comes into force as soon as possible.