Moscow (CNSNews.com) - If the U.S. turns down Moscow's offer to use a Russian radar facility in the Caucasus as an alternative to deploying missile shield facilities in Eastern Europe, Washington will be revealing its true intentions, Russian politicians are arguing.

During a G8 summit in Germany last week, President Vladimir Putin suggested that the U.S. make use of the Gabala radar site, which Russia leases from Azerbaijan in an area close to Iran's border.

This would be an alternative to American proposals to use facilities in the Czech Republic and Poland - a plan strongly opposed by Russia.

"Gabala completely covers the whole region that worries the Americans," Putin said in televised remarks. Washington says the anti-ballistic missile shield aims to provide protection against missiles fired by terrorist groups or unstable regimes such as Iran.

Putin urged the U.S. not to act on its Eastern European plans before holding talks over using the site in Azerbaijan, jointly with the Russians.

Azerbaijan, a former Soviet state, supported Putin's plan. President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday confirmed his country was prepared to cooperate with both Russia and the U.S.

"Our support for this proposal is quite natural," he said, while his foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, said negotiations on the issue could start immediately.

Russian officials argued that Putin's offer made the planned deployment of missile defense facilities in Europe irrelevant - unless the plan was intended all along to target Russia. The U.S. has repeatedly denied this frequently repeated allegation.

The Gabala radar has a nearly 7,000-kilometer range, meaning it can monitor launches across a vast swath of territory from Turkey to Pakistan - and even parts of the Indian Ocean - but could not track launches in Russia.

"Why build something new if there is the Gabala radar?" asked Alexander Belousov, Russia's first deputy defense minister. Joint use of the radar in Azerbaijan would allow the U.S. to block any possible missile attacks by rogue states targeting Europe and the Caucasus, he said.

Konstantin Kosachyov, one of Russia's top lawmakers who heads the international affairs committee of the State Duma, said that if Washington turns down Putin's proposal, it will be clear that the true aim of the project is restrain Russia's nuclear missiles, rather that to block a hypothetical Iranian or North Korean threat.

But Leonid Ivashov, head of the Geopolicy Academy -- a Moscow-based think-tank -- said he doubted the U.S. would accept the Russian proposal.

Ivashov, a former deputy chief of Russia's Army General Staff, said the U.S. clearly intended to monitor Russian territory, and the Gabala radar would not make this possible. He predicted that the Americans would kill time examining the Russian suggestion, while continuing to pursue their original missile defense plans.

That view was echoed by Anatoly Kornukov, former Russian Air Force commander, who said the U.S. would not alter its plans "and there is no way we can change it."

Russian media reported that Putin's offer last week had not come as a surprise to the Americans, as Putin had proposed the idea during a telephone conversation with Bush on April 28.

That same month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates traveled to Moscow and offered to cooperate with the Russians on the missile defense system, including sharing data from the system. At the time Russian officials turned down the offer.

The row over the missile defense plans has produced angry rhetoric from Moscow. Shortly before the G8 summit, Putin warned bluntly that the Russian military would aim its missiles at targets in Europe if the U.S. went ahead with its plans.

In comments made to European media ahead of the meeting in Germany, Putin said it was "up to our military to define these targets."

Putin also told Germany's Der Spiegel that the U.S. shield would increase the possibility of a nuclear conflict, and said that Washington was "forcing a reaction" from Moscow.

The Russian rhetoric was backed up by live tests of its latest weapons. On May 29, the Russian military test-fired new cruise missiles and a new ballistic multiple-warhead missile that will become the backbone of the country's strategic nuclear arsenal.

At the time, Putin made it clear that tests of the new missiles had been prompted by the U.S. missile defense plans.

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