MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia and the United States will hold long-delayed joint military exercises this year in Germany, a top Russian defense ministry official said on Wednesday.

"The Torgau 2007 exercises will be held but in a simplified version," Yevgeny Buzhinsky, head of the international treaties department of the ministry, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.

The annual military exercises were last held in 2005 and involved around 160 military personnel, Interfax news agency reported, but they were delayed last year because of disagreements over planning.

They will come in spite of fraught relations between Moscow and Washington because of US plans to deploy parts of an anti-missile defence system in central Europe.

Russia sees the anti-missile system as a threat to its security, while Washington says it is intended to counter possible attacks from states such as Iran.