Some 300 US Marines arrived in Norway today for a rotational deployment in the Scandinavian country, in a development which has irked Norway's Arctic neighbour Russia. <br/><br/>After leaving North Carolina aboard a chartered 747, the troops landed at the Vaernes airport near the central town of Trondheim. NATO member Norway announced in October it had accepted a US request to station troops on its soil. <br/>'<br/>Officials played down any link between the operation and NATO concerns over Russia, but the deployment coincides with the U.S. sending several thousand troops to Poland to beef up its Eastern European allies worried about Moscow's assertiveness.<br/>'<br/>The initiative has however annoyed Russia, amid rising tensions with the West over the Ukraine crisis and the conflict in Syria.''<br/>