MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed Wednesday that a meeting of the Russian and U.S. foreign and defense ministers would be held in Moscow later this month.

"An agreement to hold a 2+2 meeting was reached last fall. The exact date of the Moscow meeting in March is currently being fixed," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

In October 2007, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice, and defense chiefs Anatoly Serdyukov and Robert Gates failed to agree on missile defense in Moscow.

Speaking last month at his final annual news conference in the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia may have to retarget some of its rockets at the missile defenses that the U.S. is planning to deploy in Central Europe.

The U.S. administration is planning to construct a base for 10 two-stage missile interceptors in Poland, modify its X-band radar on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific and relocate it to the Czech Republic, and to deploy a new forward-based radar to an unspecified location.