The United States recently said a proposal to build a national missile defense system -- condemned in joint Russian-Chinese statement -- was not directed at either of those nations and was still under discussion.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement in Beijing earlier in the day condemning the U.S. National Missile Defense plan and warning of ``grave'' security consequences if it goes ahead.

``We've made quite clear that our National Missile Defense is not directed against Russia and it is not directed against China; it is designed to deal with the emerging long-range ballistic missile threat,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters on the sidelines of the Middle East peace summit at Camp David.

When asked about the communique, issued in Beijing during Putin's visit to China, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said, ``I think President Putin has made his views well-known on this issue. He's discussed this with the president while we were in Russia.''

``I expect we'll have a further discussion in the context of the G7/G8 meetings,'' Lockhart added during a briefing near Camp David, where President Clinton is involved in the Middle East peace talks.

Leaders of the G8 industrialized nations are meeting in Okinawa, Japan, later this week.

In their statement Putin and Jiang said the United States was seeking ``unilateral military and security advantages'' with its plans for the missile defense shield.

``Implementing this plan will have the most grave adverse consequences not only to the national security of Russia, China and other countries, but also to the security and international strategic stability of the United States itself,'' their joint statement said.

Lockhart said Clinton was still deciding whether or not to go ahead with the missile shield plan.

``I think for our part, the president is still awaiting a recommendation from the secretary of defense (William Cohen) and will make his decision based on the four criteria that he's laid out,'' Lockhart added. Those criteria are: threat assessment; the feasibility of any system; its cost; and the effect that its deployment may have on overall US security, including arms control.

Clinton is under domestic pressure to take steps to construct the system to protect the United States from possible missile attacks from ``states of concern'' such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq.

Russia opposes the missile defense system, and Putin told Clinton so during a visit to Moscow last month. China has suggested it would rethink previous non-proliferation pledges if the United States goes ahead with the shield.

Russia and China say the missile defense program would undermine arms agreements and the system of deterrence that has helped keep the peace for decades.

``We are less confident that deterrence would work against a North Korea or Iran or Iraq than we are with China and Russia,'' said senior US arms control adviser John Holum, who recently returned from Beijing.

``They have less of a history of dealing with these capabilities,'' Holum told reporters at a breakfast meeting.

Boucher said the United States would continue discussions on the missile defense system with China, Russia and its allies.

``But in the end, the president has to make a decision based on what's in the US national interest, considering the kind of threat and the cost and feasibility of and the overall environment,'' he said.

A US attempt to intercept and destroy a target warhead in space failed earlier this month, throwing into question whether the proposed system would even work. It was the second failure in three tries for the system. The miss could weigh heavily in a decision that Clinton is due to make later this year on whether to begin building a new radar in Alaska for a limited missile defense.