In a far cry from the acrimony at similar meetings here six months ago, visiting US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed the positive tone of talks with Putin and others at the Kremlin.

Gates said it was even possible to conclude a deal on controversial US missile defense plans before Bush leaves office in January 2009.

At the start of talks with Rice and Gates, Putin held out the hope of agreements but did not give specifics.

"We can put a full stop on some problems in US-Russia relations and consider them definitively resolved," the Russian leader told his guests.

Putin said he had received a "very serious" letter from Bush. "If we manage to reach agreement on its basic provisions, then we can state our dialogue is proceeding successfully," Putin said.

A US official travelling with the US delegations said the letter contained ideas about the broader agenda ahead in US-Russia relations.

The Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source saying the letter also concerned the "legacy" of Putin and Bush, who will both be leaving office over the next year.

The US-Russia talks were a first opportunity for US officials to assess president-elect Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's hand-picked successor who won a landslide election victory on March 2 and will officially begin his four-year term on May 7.

Gates described Medvedev as "thoughtful, articulate... and on top of his brief."

Rice and Gates were in Moscow for sensitive talks focusing on US plans to install missile defence facilities near Russia's borders in Poland and the Czech Republic -- a move that has angered Moscow.

But the tone at Monday's talks appeared markedly different to a visit by Rice and Gates in October, when Putin was shown on state television berating the US officials over Washington's missile defence plans.

"I frankly was surprised at the relatively positive tone of the meetings both with the president-elect (Dmitry Medvedev) and President Putin, and I think we have some opportunities here. We'll see," Gates said.

Moscow opposes US plans to place a missile defence radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, seeing them as a security threat and part of an effort to encircle Russia.

Washington insists the missile defence facilities could not impinge on Russia or its vast nuclear arsenal and says they are intended to protect against unfriendly states such as Iran and North Korea.

On his way to Moscow, Gates suggested there was little room for flexibility on missile defence, saying he wanted Russia to give ground and respond to existing US compromise proposals on missile defence.

"I think the answer is yes," Gates told reporters when asked whether he was confident a missile defense deal could happen before Bush's term ends in January.

Welcoming Gates and Rice for talks earlier Monday, Putin's successor in waiting, Medvedev, noted differences with Washington over missile defence and arms control but said Moscow had "a will to move forward" in resolving them.

Tensions have mounted between Russia and the United States not only on missile defence but also the possible expansion of the NATO military alliance, which Moscow opposes.

At a NATO summit in Bucharest on April 2-4, two former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, hope to get the go-ahead to begin formal adhesion to NATO.

A planned Bush visit to Ukraine on the eve of the summit could also ratchet up tensions.

Rice spoke of areas where both sides had cooperated such as on adopting a third UN Security Council resolution against Iran over its nuclear program.

But she admitted that Russia and the United States did not "see eye to eye" on Kosovo, where the ethnic Albanian-dominated parliament recently declared independence from Russia's ally Serbia and won broad US and European backing.

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