Poland could turn down US missile shield - minister (Extra)

Jun 1, 2007, 14:51 GMT

Warsaw - Poland could turn down a United States proposal to deploy an anti-ballistic missile shield on its territory should it find the terms of the deal unacceptable, Poland's defence minister said Friday.

'If the American conditions will be unacceptable - there won't be a shield,' Minister Aleksander Szczyglo said, quoted by Poland's PAP news agency.

'It is not the case that this is a foregone conclusion that the shield will be installed regardless of the outcome of the negotiations,' he said. 'Our American friends must realise that this most certainly will not happen.'

The Friday edition of Poland's Rzeczpospolita daily quoted unnamed governmental sources as saying the US missile shield offer was 'poor' and 'not what Poland had been expecting.'

Sources said the US expected Poland to cover part of the cost of the missile shield intended to protect the US and its allies from inter-continental ballistic missile attacks by rogue states.

The report was, however, denied Friday by Poland's Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

His identical twin brother President Lech Kaczynski is due to told top level talks on the missile shield plan with US President George W Bush on June 8 in Poland.

The US wants to deploy 10 interceptor missile stations in Poland and a radar site in the Czech Republic.