Russia's president-elect,Dmitry Medvedev,struck a conciliatory note at the start of talks with visiting US officials by saying there was a common will to solve problems between Moscow and Washington.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates were on Monday beginning their first meeting with Medvedev since he won a landslide election victory earlier this month.
"There are issues where we still have differences in positions,that is missile defence and START (a nuclear arms treaty),but we also have a common will and commitment to move ahead,"Medvedev said.
He was referring to rows over US plans to base parts of a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic,moves which Russia says threaten its security,and to US resistance to a successor to the Cold War-era START treaty limiting long-range nuclear weapons.
"We must create the basis for the continuity of Russian-American relations in future. We have everything we need to achieve that,"Medvedev added.
Earlier,Rice said she hoped her talks in Moscow would set a positive tone for relations with Medvedev and ease differences over the missile defence shield.
But Russian media quoted officials in Moscow as saying progress would only be possible on the shield if the visitors brought new proposals from Washington - something Gates has said he is not doing.
Rice and Gates will also meet their Russian counterparts and outgoing President Vladimir Putin,who leaves the Kremlin on May 7 and has said he will then become prime minister.
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 have not been affected.