MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia remained unconvinced about US anti-missile defence plans after initial talks yesterday, but both sides pledged to keep talking.

Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, heading a US team touring Europe to marshal support for President George W. Bush's National Missile Defence scheme, held two hours of talks at the Foreign Ministry and met other security officials too.

The diplomatic language on both sides suggested there had been much detailed talking but little if any change in positions, a pattern largely repeated elsewhere as US teams criss-crossed Europe and Asia this week.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said talks had been substantive, but left more questions than answers.

"The United States has been unable to give us arguments to convince us that they see clearly how to solve the problems of international security without damaging disarmament agreements which have stood for 30 years," he told reporters.

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov reinforced this during a visit to Finland, saying at a news conference it was Russia's goal to preserve the strategic balance and international stability.

US Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters outside the Foreign Ministry in Moscow: "The fact that we are meeting and opening this dialogue is a sign of progress.

"It is a first step in a consultation process which will continue over the weeks ahead and include discussions and consultations between our two presidents," he said, also using the word "substantive" to describe yesterday's encounter.

He said the US side had answered some Russian questions and given them much thought, but there was more thinking to do.

Yakovenko also noted talks would continue, in the first instance when Ivanov visits Washington next week to meet US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet at a multinational summit in Italy in July, but may get together before that for a first bilateral meeting.

Wolfowitz's Moscow visit was always likely to be the toughest assignment on a European mission that included Britain, France and Germany in the itinerary among others. Moscow has long denounced the NMD idea as a threat to strategic stability.

A separate team under US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was touring Asia and reached New Delhi yesterday.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee lauded Bush's vision of nuclear disarmament. India has stopped short of openly endorsing the NMD plan.

Marc Grossman, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, met Turkey's prime minister and foreign minister for talks in Ankara yester.

"We're in listening mode now. They're explaining and we're listening," Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Faruk Logoglu told reporters after the talks.

Grossman said talks had focused on the general concept of the new missile defence plan and it was too early to talk about specifics such as whether Turkish bases would be used for it.

"We hope there will be as wide a participation as possible in the development of such as system. This is about protecting all countries," he said. "The purpose of defence is not to make any country more vulnerable."

Russia begs to differ on this point, saying an anti-missile shield could undermine Moscow's nuclear deterrent.

RUSSIA, US ALLIES CAUTIOUS

Moscow rejects the premise of NMD, outlined by Bush in a major address last week, that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty is outmoded and must be abandoned. Russia, backed by China, sees ABM as the foundation of decades of disarmament.

Putin was cautious in responding to Bush's address, which also called for deep cuts in strategic arsenals. Putin said the proposals constituted a good basis for dialogue and he looked forward to consultations with Washington.

U.S. envoys have had difficulty winning over Europeans this week. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's foreign policy adviser said his country's position remained neither "yes" nor "no" as key questions remained unanswered.

France repeated reservations and diplomats said British officials learned no more than they had from Bush's speech.

"We were left rather hungry," a French diplomat said.

Armitage told South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo daily newspaper a limited U.S. missile shield would be offered to Washington's allies if the technology was successful.

In Seoul on Thursday, Armitage told South Korea it would resume talks with North Korea -- seen by Washington as a potential source of the kind of rogue rocket NMD would thwart.

Coincidence or not, as Wolfowitz's team held talks in one part of the Russian ministry, North Korea's ambassador to Moscow was meeting Russian diplomats elsewhere in the building. The ministry said they discussed "international questions."