AmericasBlood.com

(CNN) — U.S. President George W. Bush said Tuesday that Russia was not his country’s enemy and had nothing to fear from U.S. plans for a Europe-based missile defense program.

President Bush is expected to meet his Russian counterpart on Wednesday.

Ahead of a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Bush attempted to allay Russian fears over the proposed missile shield saying it was meant to target “rogue nations” not escalate a new Cold War.

“Russia’s not our enemy,” Bush said, adding that the missile defense shield is “a purely defensive measure aimed not at Russia but at true threats.”

Bush urged Russian cooperation with U.S. efforts to build a weapons system that would help “safeguard free nations against a missile attack launched from a rogue regime,” inviting Putin to send military personnel and scientists to learn about the system.

Bush is expected to meet with Putin Wednesday at the Group of Eight economic summit in Germany. He said he would urge his Russian counterpart to embrace the missile program.

“My message will be, Vladimir — I call him Vladimir — that you shouldn’t fear a missile defense system,” Bush said. “As a matter of fact, why don’t you cooperate with us … Please send your generals over to see how such a system would work. Send your scientists, let us have the ability to discuss this issue in an open forum.”

“We’ll be completely transparent,” he added.

While the U.S. relationship with Russia is complex, Bush said the countries can work together to deal with mutual threats.

But top Russian officials have sharply objected to the deployment of missile-defense technology in Europe.

Putin has said the deployment threatens Russian territory and will “turn Europe into a powder keg and stuff it with new types of weapons.”

The leader raised the stakes over the weekend, warning that he may aim nuclear weapons at European targets unless Washington abandons its plans.

“If this does not happen, then we will withdraw any responsibility for our retaliatory measures because it wasn’t us who initiated a new round of arms race development in Europe,” Putin said.

Under the U.S. plan, elements of a missile-defense system still under development would be placed in European countries — 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic, according to a Reuters report. Both nations are former members of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact and members of the U.S.-led NATO alliance.

While the U.S. maintains the defense system is meant to target rogue states such as Iran and North Korea, Russian authorities have said they see the shield as a threat that warrants retaliation.

The United States, meanwhile, has criticized Putin’s government for cracking down on opposition. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice blasted Moscow’s record on human rights and democracy Thursday, saying the freedoms of speech and the press are not “just a nuisance that the state can attack at will.”

Earlier, Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Larijani denied the country is a threat to Europe or America.

Bush and Putin are scheduled to meet Wednesday in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, Germany and the dispute threatens to overshadow the G-8 conference.

Speaking on Air Force One en route to Prague, top White House adviser Stephen Hadley noted that while the United States and Russia have a “complex relationship,” they continue to have “common interests” such as battling terrorism and preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

But he added, “We’ve also talked about how there are no exceptions to the freedom agenda.”

The coming summit already has drawn thousands of protesters, many of whom clashed with police in the nearby city of Rostock over the weekend. Protest organizers said they will attempt to blockade the city’s airport as Bush arrives Tuesday and will attempt to march to the summit site in Heiligendamm, about six miles away.