The operation, which Washington says is motivated only by the desire to avoid a damaging crash on Earth, "does not look as innocent as they are trying to present it," the ministry said in a statement released late Saturday.

"The impression arises that the United States is trying to use the accident with its satellite to test its national anti-missile defence system as a means of destroying satellites," the Russian ministry said.

The ability to shoot down satellites is seen by many analysts as crucial in future conflicts due to the dependence of modern military equipment on satellite-based communications.

Washington says a US warship will fire a surface-to-air missile at the US satellite, which is roughly the size of a bus, to ensure any Earth-bound debris will splash into the ocean. Without intervention, the satellite would hit earth in early March, a US official said.

The United States denies the shoot-down aims at protecting the satellite's technological secrets or at demonstrating anti-satellite capability.

However, the Russian defence ministry said the US plan was "in many ways close" to China's controversial shoot-down of an old weather satellite in January, which was condemned by the United States as a demonstration of its military reach in space.

The US State Department last week said that the Chinese operation was "designed specifically" to test their ability to destroy satellites, whereas the US plan was aimed only at protecting people on the ground.

Russian concerns about the US plan are compounded by Washington's repeated refusal to take part in talks on limiting space-based weapons, the defence ministry said.

The announcement last week that Moscow and Beijing were proposing a new treaty banning the use of weapons in space was immediately rejected by the White House.

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