Security tight on Poland's Hel peninsula ahead of Bush visit

Jun 6, 2007, 15:43 GMT

Warsaw - A security clamp-down was being imposed on Poland's Hel peninsula ahead of the arrival of US President George W Bush for talks with Polish President Lech Kaczynski expected to focus largely on controversial US plans to install anti-ballistic missile bases on Polish soil.

Two thousand police officers and hundred of Polish and US special agents are slated to secure Bush's four-hour stop-over in Poland on Friday.

Hundreds of protesters are expected to stage a demonstration near the Polish president's swish Baltic seaside residence in Jurata on the Hel peninsula where Bush and Kaczynski are set to focus on the controversial US Global Missile Defence project Friday.

But Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski - the president's identical twin - made it clear Tuesday his country's agreement to host the missile shield bases was not a foregone conclusion.

'Everything depends on this talk,' Kaczynski said this week.

In an interview with Polish Radio, the premier also refused to reveal whether a concrete joint political declaration on the project would emerge from the top-level talks.

The US is currently in talks about installing a radar tracking station in the Czech Republic and 10 anti-ballistic missile bases in Poland in less than a decade to meet perceived future threats from so-called rogue states such as Iran or North Korea.

Iranian officials, however, recently denied their country has the long-range missile capability to stage an attack on Europe, or the US.

Although the US and its allies insist the shield would pose no threat to Russia, Moscow perceives the plans as a major national security hazard.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Western media earlier this week Russia may be forced to point it own warhead at European targets should the US push ahead with missile shield bases nearby Poland.

Putin's words have been compared to those used by Soviet leader Nikita Chrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis - regarded as the apex of the Cold War.