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(Reuters) - NATO
states should agree at a summit this year to make missile defense
systems against states including Iran an alliance mission and look at
every opportunity to cooperate on this with Russia, the head of NATO
says.

In a speech prepared for delivery at a
conference in Brussels Saturday, alliance Secretary-General Anders Fogh
Rasmussen said a NATO-wide missile defense system would show collective
will to defend against a growing threat.

"We
need a decision by NATO's next summit in November that missile defense
for our populations and territories is an alliance mission. And that we
will explore every opportunity to cooperate with Russia," Rasmussen said
in an advance text of the speech made available by NATO.

In reiterating his wish to see collaboration
with Russia, Rasmussen said this required a decision by Moscow "to see
missile defense as an opportunity, rather than a threat."

He said current trends showed a "real and
growing" threat from weapons of mass destruction and their means of
delivery, with more than 30 countries possessing or developing missiles
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