UPDATE 1-U.S. calms allies on missile shield, not Russia

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BRUSSELS, April 19 (Reuters) - The United States won backing from allies for its planned missile shield system at talks at NATO on Thursday, but Russia remained unconvinced the shield was needed to preempt attacks from rogue states, officials said.

"The allies are united on the issue, the threat and the way ahead," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference after the talks among senior officials in Brussels.

However he said of discussions with Russian officials that followed: "I can't say we agree on everything. There is a difference in the threat perception."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who some analysts say is using the spat to divide the West, has said the U.S. plan to deploy 10 interceptor rockets in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic by 2012 encroaches on Russia's security interests.

The project has also jangled nerves in Europe, and U.S. officials concede they could have better explained their aims. But de Hoop Scheffer said allies raised no objections to the plan during the talks and went further by agreeing that any future NATO shield should complement the U.S. one.

"That system could and should be complementary to the U.S. one," he said of a NATO plan to build a shield for short-range missiles that could be used to plug the coverage holes in the U.S. shield -- which covers all of Europe except Turkey, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria.

Russian envoy to NATO Konstantin Totksy said Moscow disputed the level of the threat facing Europe, the logic for siting shield elements in eastern Europe, and feared the United States would in future deploy more rockets.

But, in contrast to Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov who earlier ridiculed the U.S. plan and ruled out the prospect of Russia agreeing to a U.S. offer of cooperation on shield technology, he said Russia was ready for such discussions.

"We will scrutinise these proposals and come back to our U.S. colleagues," he told reporters of a U.S. offer this week of cooperation, for example by sharing early warning data or conducting joint exercises.