President Nicolas Sarkozy of France proposed a time-out today in the dangerous arms race prompted by Washington's plans to position a missile defence shield in Europe.

Speaking after hosting an EU-Russian summit in the southern city of Nice, Mr Sarkozy proposed that a security summit be held next summer at which Russia, the United States and Europe could hammer out a long-term security framework. He added that the proposed missile shield would do "nothing" to help European security.

Mr Sarkozy appears to have won the agreement of his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, who threatened last week to site short-range nuclear missiles in the western enclave of Kaliningrad, on the borders of the EU.

"I have suggested that in mid-2009 we could meet within a framework to lay the foundations of what could possibly be a future pan-European security system," Mr Sarkozy said at a joint press conference with Mr Medvedev. "This would bring together the Russians, the American and the Europeans."

Mr Sarkozy said that the pact could be discussed next year at a summit of the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), adding: "Between now and then, please, no more talk of missile deployment or anti-missile deployment."

Responding to the proposal, Mr Medvedev called for all sides in the dispute to avoid “unilateral measures” before the new framework is agreed. He also defended the Russian plans to site missiles in Kaliningrad, calling it “a response to various nations in Europe who, without consulting anyone, agreed to deploy new weapons on their soil”.

The missile row has helped bring about a major deterioration in US-Russian relations, which have returned to Cold War levels of frostiness.

Washington insists that the shield is designed to protect the West from a hostile Iran and does not pose a threat to Russia.

The depth of the Kremlin's anger was clear last week when Mr Medvedev made his first presidential address to the Russian parliament only hours after Barack Obama's landslide victory in the US presidential election without even mentioning him by name.

The key unknown is what the Obama Administration will do after it takes over in the White House in January – but Mr Sarkozy's proposal could prove to be well timed. Mr Obama has said that he wants to be sure that the missile defence shield would be effective before signing it off, a position that leaves him plenty of room for manoeuvre.

The Russian sabre-rattling looks set to continue, however. The Kremlin confirmed today that Mr Medvedev is to visit Cuba later this month, a visit that is unlikely to go down well in Washington.

A Kremlin spokeswoman said that the visit would take place on November 27 at the tail end of Medvedev’s swing through the region that will also include a stop in Venezuela for talks with Hugo Chavez expected to coincide with joint naval exercises off the Venezuelan coast.

It will be the first visit to Cuba by a Kremlin leader since then-president Vladimir Putin went there in December 2000 nearly a decade after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s Cold-War sponsor.

Though relations cooled dramatically during the 1990s as post-Soviet Russia cut support for the Castro regime, the two countries have recently shown renewed mutual interest.

“Relations between Russia and Cuba are developing very dynamically,” Mr Medvedev said as he met the Cuban foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque, in Moscow earlier this week. “We have moved past the pause of the last decade. Our contacts are very intense. Our relations are very friendly." The Cuban leader Raul Castro is due to visit Russia next year.

Times Recommends

• The story behind the picture: American elections, 2008
• The Get Out of Jail Free gene
• Caught on camera: hippos kill crocodile in rare clash