"The Bucharest and Sochi summits convincingly showed that relations between Russia and its Western partners cannot be defined as 'confrontation'. The talk about this is most likely an attempt to make us face the choice - either cooperation on dictated conditions or confrontation," Sergei Lavrov told the Russian weekly Profil in an article to be published Monday.

"We have been constantly saying that there will be no confrontation, including a costly arms race. Just because there are no objective reasons for that, and Russia will not participate in this," the minister said.

Lavrov said Russia would react to what inflicts damage to its national interests, but "on the basis of reasonable sufficiency and norms of international law, in an open and predictable way."

The Russian minister said Moscow believes a stable architecture of collective security cannot be built in the Euro-Atlantic region without equal cooperation between the European Union, Russia and the United States.

Lavrov said "unilateral actions, like the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, the [planned] deployment of U.S. missile defense in Central Europe, and the aggressive lobbying of an accelerated movement by Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, totally contradict this goal."

The U.S. is planning to modify its X-band radar on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific and relocate it to the Czech Republic as part of its proposed European missile shield, which will also include deploying 10 interceptor missiles in Poland. Russia has voiced concerns about the plans.

At the April 2-4 Bucharest summit, NATO powers refused to admit Georgia and Ukraine to the alliance's Membership Action Plan, despite U.S. President George Bush's strong support of the countries' bids. The rejection was seen as a response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's threat, made last year, to target missiles at Ukraine if Kiev joins NATO.

Kosovo, with a 90% ethnic-Albanian majority, has been formally recognized as a sovereign state by 36 countries including the U.S. and most EU members since it proclaimed its independence from Serbia on February 17. Russia and China continue to back Belgrade's position that Kosovo will always remain a part of Serbia.

Although Russia has repeatedly stated its respect for the principle of territorial integrity, claims from Moscow that Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have a legitimate right to sovereignty have come to the fore since most Western countries recognized Kosovo.

Although Bush and Putin failed to overcome their differences on missile defense at their final summit in south Russia's Sochi April 6, they praised bilateral relations.

The outgoing Russian leader said the talks at his residence in Sochi were generally positive, and that he was "cautiously optimistic" that the dispute, which has proved a major stumbling block in relations between Moscow and Washington, will be resolved.

The meeting between the Russian and U.S. presidents, who will leave office next month and next January respectively, produced a "strategic framework" on future relations between the countries, encompassing areas ranging from trade to counter-terrorism to defense.

Bush, while summing up their seven-year relationship as presidents, said: "We worked very hard over the past years to find areas where we can work together, and I think we've done a pretty good job of it... It's been a remarkable relationship."

MOSCOW, April 19 (RIA Novosti)