July 25 (Bloomberg) -- Russia's denial of reports that it plans to send strategic nuclear bombers to Cuba is ``a very good thing,'' the U.S. State Department said.

The daily newspaper Izvestiya reported on July 21 that Russia may set up a refueling base for strategic aircraft in Cuba in response to U.S. plans to deploy elements of a missile defense system in Europe, citing an unidentified ``highly placed source.''

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Ilshat Baichurin yesterday denied the reports, blaming unnamed foreign states themselves expanding their military bases around Russia for disseminating misinformation.

``I think that's a very good thing,'' Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said yesterday in comments posted on the department's Web Site.

Both the supersonic Tu-160, a nuclear bomber known as ``White Swan,'' and the strategic bomber Tu-95, known to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as the ``Bear,'' are capable of flying as far as Cuba, Izvestiya said. Two days later it quoted unidentified Defense Ministry officials as saying that that bomber crews had flown to Cuba to inspect facilities there.

The story prompted U.S. Air Force General Norton Schwartz to warn Russia not to cross a ``red line'' by stationing nuclear bombers in Cuba.

Russia said on July 8 that it would react with military means to the U.S. system. Russian leaders have threatened to aim nuclear missiles at the planned bases in the Czech Republic and Poland, which they say would threaten Russia's security.

The deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba brought the U.S. and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear conflict during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Under the deal that ended the crisis, the Soviet Union withdrew the missiles and pledged not to station offensive weapons on the island, about 145 kilometers (90 miles) south of Florida.

-- Editors: Alan Crosby, Balazs Penz

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 25, 2008 04:01 EDT