WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden on Friday delayed a decision to let Ukraine fire long-range Western-supplied missiles into Russia, a plan that sparked dire threats from Moscow of a war with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Starmer told reporters at the White House that he had a “wide-ranging discussion about strategy” with Biden but that it “wasn’t a meeting about a particular capability.”

Before the meeting officials had said Starmer would press Biden to back his plan to send British Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine to hit deeper inside Russia as allies become increasingly concerned about the battlefield situation.

But the Labor leader indicated that he and Biden would now discuss the plan at the United Nations General Assembly in New York the week after next “with a wider group of individuals.”

As they met with their teams across a long table in the White House, backed by US and British flags, Biden played down a warning by Russian President Vladimir Putin that allowing Ukraine to fire the weapons would mean the West was “at war” with Russia.

“I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin,” Biden told reporters when asked about the comments.

The White House on Friday accused Putin of making “incredibly dangerous” threats.

“That type of rhetoric is incredibly dangerous,” spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, ahead of the Biden-Starmer meeting.

But while Biden said it was “clear that Putin will not prevail in this war,” he is understood to be reluctant to grant Ukraine’s insistent demand to be able to use long-range US-made ATACMS missiles against Russian territory.

US officials believe the missiles would make a limited difference to Ukraine’s campaign and also want to ensure that Washington’s own stocks of the munitions are not depleted.