U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she hoped talks in Moscow on Monday would set a positive tone for relations with Russia`s next president and ease differences over a planned missile defense shield. But Russian media quoted officials in Moscow as saying progress would be possible on the missile defense shield, which Moscow opposes, only if Rice and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates were bringing new proposals from Washington. Rice and Gates will meet their Russian counterparts, President Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, who succeeds him as president on May 7. It will be Medvedev`s first meetings with senior U.S. officials since he was elected on March 2. "We want to lay a good foundation for U.S.-Russian relations going into the future despite our differences," Rice told reporters on her plane as she flew to Moscow. "I don`t know what the course of Russian policy will be but frankly, I don`t think there will be any major shifts in policy." Making their second joint trip to Moscow in six months, Rice and Gates will try again to find a way out of a dispute over Washington`s plans to station elements of its planned missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Washington says the missile shield system is designed to protect against attacks from what it calls rogue states, and specifically Iran. Moscow strongly opposes the system and says it could be directed at Russia. The dispute has helped push diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia to a post-Cold War low, although economic cooperation and trade links are at unprecedented levels. Rice said the two sides might not agree on all elements of the shield plan, but she hoped they could cooperate and find a common understanding of the threat of attacks. "We may have enough bridging of that (differences) so that they and we have some confidence that a missile defense system is really aimed at that threat," Rice said. DIFFERENCES Despite her comments, differences are emerging over compromise proposals both sides put forward last year to ease the dispute. Gates told reporters as he flew to Russia that he expected Moscow to respond to earlier U.S. proposals, including one offering Russia access to missile shield sites. "We`ve put a lot on the table and now it`s time for them to reciprocate," Gates said. "At some point the Russians are going to have to decide whether they want to be true partners, which we are offering, or whether this is just all a sham game on their part to stall the whole deal." Russian media quoted officials in Moscow as saying it was down to Washington to renew their proposals. Russia`s Itar-Tass news agency quoted an unnamed source in the Russian Defense Ministry as saying progress was possible only if Rice and Gates "bring with them new proposals that take into account Moscow`s concerns." "Otherwise ... everything will be reduced to each side repeating positions that have been known for a long time," it quoted the official as saying. The two sides will also discuss what will replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which expires in 2009. The pact, signed in Moscow in 1991, set ceilings on the size of the Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals. Russia is seeking agreement on replacing the deal. Although Washington has balked at a formal arrangement, Rice indicated a softening in that position. "I don`t think we have objections to a formal agreement. The more important question is what is it that we will be formalizing," said Rice. She said the previous treaty was so long it "almost filled this (aircraft) cabin" and this was not needed. "It`s a very different world now," she said.