President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will put into service unique nuclear missile systems in the next few years. The claim came in a speech to armed forces chiefs, where defence minister Sergei Ivanov admitted growing rates of suicide and crime among the military. Putin said: "We are conducting research on and successfully testing new nuclear missile systems. I am sure that they will be put into service within the next few years and they will be systems of the kind that other nuclear powers do not have and will not have in the near future." Washington has insisted the development is nothing new and will not harm its strategic co-operation with Moscow. White House spokesman Scott McClennan said: "The president and president Putin have worked very closely together to establish that relationship and they have worked together to move beyond some of the issues of the past and develop an agreement to significantly reduce our nuclear arsenals that is what I think is most important. But I think what I took from these comments, it is something they have talked about before and that is modernisation of their military. We are allies now in the global war against terrorism." For Victor Kremenyuk, a Russian expert on North America, nothing positive will come out of Moscow's announcement: "I am afraid that different people on both sides would use it their interest. The American minister of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, will use it a thousand per cent to support his position, to say that we still need some new weapons, you know, that we need to go ahead to spend more on research and development because the Russians are ahead." Moscow has sought to upgrade its nuclear arsenal since the US announced in 2001 that it was working on a missile defence shield. Earlier this month Russia said it would test-fire a mobile version of its Topol-M ballistic missile. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Soviet-era military officials, former Defense Minister, Marshal Sergei Sokolov, center, and Gen. Vladimir Govorov, while meeting the leadership of Russia's Armed Forces in Moscow, Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2004. (AP Photo/ ITAR-TASS)