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TALLINN, Estonia (AP) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has rejected a Russian suggestion that both countries scrap plans to place defensive missiles in Eastern Europe.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in a televised interview with French journalists broadcast that Moscow was willing to reconsider deploying Iskander missiles in its westernmost region of Kaliningrad if Washington did not place 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic.

Gates said that the proposal was not acceptable to the United States.

He also said the biggest threat to Russia's security was Iran and that Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad would lack the range to protect Russia from this danger.

Medvedev announced Moscow's intention to deploy the missiles a day after the U.S. presidential election.

It was "hardly the welcome a new American administration deserves," Gates said. "Such provocative remarks are unnecessary and misguided."

Gates said Russia has nothing to fear from a defensive missile shield in Eastern Europe.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has said it would be prudent to "explore the possibility of deploying missile defense systems in Europe," in light of what he called active efforts by Iran to develop ballistic missiles as well as nuclear weapons.

Iran has test-fired a new generation of long range surface-to-surface missile -- one that could easily strike as far away as southeastern Europe with greater precision than earlier models.

The Sajjil is a solid fuel high-speed missile with a range of about 1,200 miles, Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammed Najjar said on state television. At that range, it could easily strike Iran's arch-foe Israel and go as far as southeastern Europe.