US Missile Plan Under Threat As Poland Demands Guarantees

Poland and Russia engaged in their first talks over the Pentagon's plans to install missile defense systems in central Europe yesterday, amid signs that the project could unravel because of political shifts in the US, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Kislyak, went to Warsaw to warn the Polish foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, of the "strategic dangers" posed by the project, bitterly opposed by the Kremlin which is threatening a new arms race if the US goes ahead. Over the past week a flurry of coordinated statements from the new liberal government of the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, in Warsaw has signaled the mounting troubles engulfing the missile shield project.

Poland is demanding security guarantees and beefed-up air defense hardware from Washington, worried that the deployment of interceptor missile silos on Polish territory could jeopardize rather than enhance Polish security.

The project's prospects have also been thrown into uncertainty by the change of administration in Washington in a year's time, with the Poles and the Czechs seeking assurances from the US Democrats on their position on the missile shield.

"We need to make sure that missile defense will continue under any US administration," said Jiri Schneider, an expert at Prague's Security Studies Institute.

While Kislyak went to Warsaw yesterday to negotiate with the Poles, Tusk went to Prague to try to strike a common Polish-Czech bargaining position. The Americans hope to install radar facilities at a military base south of Prague while stationing 10 interceptor rockets in Poland.

Despite opposition to the project among Czechs - rising to 70% in a survey this week - the Czech government is keener than its Polish counterpart to strike a deal with the Americans.

The Czechs want the missile shield agreed by April, fearing that if there is no prompt deal the $3.5bn (£1.8bn) project could be shelved until after November's US presidential election.

Czech officials, who privately dismiss the Polish criticisms as tactical posturing, are also anxious that the Americans may go it alone with "national" missile defense, causing transatlantic tensions within the Nato alliance and undermining European security. Poland may wait until the dust settles in post-election America.

The facilities would be the first US military installations in the two former Warsaw pact countries.

The Americans insist the shield is not directed at Russia, but at Iran and other emerging proliferation threats.

For the first time this week Poland contradicted Washington's claims. "This is an American, not a Polish project," said Sikorski. "We feel no threat from Iran."

Bogdan Klich, the Polish defense minister, will press Warsaw's demands at the Pentagon on Monday.