MOSCOW, March 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Russian military launched a test intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday from its northwestern Plisetsk base, military officials said, a day after Russia asked the U.S. to give an explanation for the repeated flights of a U2 spy plane near its southwestern border with Georgia.

The Topol rocket, which was 18 years old, was fired at the Kamchatka peninsula, the usual target for most Russian intercontinental test sights, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Military officials told AFP that the launch was not linked with the United States' decision to launch the Iraqi war.

"This has nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with Iraq," an officer at the Russian Strategic Missile Forces press service told AFP by telephone.

"This has been in the planning for months," the official said.

Russia had fought bitterly against strikes on Iraq, with President Vladimir Putin taking a tough stance against the war in recent days.

Analysts have interpreted Putin's comments to mean that there has been a rupture in Moscow's relations with Washington sparked by the war.

When contacted by AFP earlier, a Russian military space agency official had refused to answer whether the test had been planned before or after the U.S.-British military attack on Iraq.

Officials said the Topol launch from Plisetsk was the 79th launch of this type of rocket since 1981.

Explanation Needed

Russia on Wednesday, March 26, asked the U.S. to give an explanation for the repeated flights of a U2 spy plane near its southwestern border with Georgia.

We have asked the United States to explain to us the need for such flights," Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told reporters, as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

Ivanov said Moscow was not satisfied with explanations it had received from Washington according to which the U2 flights near the Russian-Georgian border are part of the "war on terrorism."

"We cannot accept these explanations about the fight against terrorism and will not accept them," Interfax quoted Ivanov as saying.

Russia Sunday, March 23, accused U.S. spy planes of flying regular surveillance missions near its border with Georgia, saying that analysis of three flights by U2 spy planes detected in the past 30 days showed a regular pattern.

It accused Georgia of allowing the U.S. planes to carry out spying missions from its territory.

Georgia signed a deal with the United States in late 2001 allowing regular overflights, mainly to Cyprus and Afghanistan.

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said last week he was ready to offer the United States use of his country's air bases for the war on Iraq.

The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday that the flights resembled "a return to Cold War-era practices."

The U.S. flights are officially carried out in agreement with Georgia, as part of the post-September 11 "war on terrorism."

‘End War’

Russia urged U.S. Wednesday for an immediate end to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The Russian demand came following a missile attack on a residential area in Baghdad that left 14 people dead and around 30 people injured.

"In this situation, we believe it is vital to end hostilities as soon as possible and resume a peaceful settlement of the Iraq question in the framework of the UN Security Council," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Ivanov again stressed the need to halt the fighting and resume discussions at the UN Security Council.

Ivanov held telephone talks with his U.S. counterpart Colin Powell on the provision of humanitarian aid to Iraq.

The statement added, "As Russia and many other countries warned, the war has directly affected Iraq's civilian population and infrastructure.

“The continuing bombings are causing more and more casualties and destroying residential buildings."

Ivanov also spoke by phone with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, to stress the UN's central role in a settlement of the Iraqi issue, including the postwar situation.

He also phoned French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, as both ministers expressed "serious concern" at the growing numbers of civilian casualties.

Ivanov warned earlier that the U.S.-led war in Iraq launched last Thursday was illegal and doomed to failure.

He said Russia would seek to bring the Iraqi issue back to the UN Security Council where efforts by Russia, France and Germany to avoid the conflict failed earlier this month.