Missile defence radar clears first vote in Czech Republic (Roundup)

By Katerina Zachovalova Nov 27, 2008, 15:16 GMT

Prague - US plans to place a missile defence radar in the Czech Republic cleared their first hurdle on Thursday, as the former Soviet satellite's upper house passed the measure.

The 81-seat Senate passed two missile shield treaties in separate 49-32 votes, said the chamber's chairman, Premysl Sobotka.

The senators rejected opposition proposals to adjourn the vote or put the accords under a review of the country's Constitutional Court.

The US project however faces obstacles in the closely-divided lower house where the center-right government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has failed to garner clear support for it.

The main diplomatic accord and the agreement on US troop status at the planned base also require presidential approval.

To Moscow's ire, the outgoing Bush administration would like to erect a tracking radar for a European arm of its missile shield in a military zone south-west of Prague, accompanied by 10 interceptor missiles in Poland.

The Czech and Polish governments continue to back the plan, whose future under the next US administration is unclear. US president-elect Barack Obama has so far only said that he would support the shield if it works.

The uncertainty means that Czech opponents of the plan have warned against rushed voting in parliament.

In a bid to win over the plan's opponents, premier Topolanek said earlier he would prefer the final lower house vote to take place after Obama takes office on January 20.

Speaking before the Senate on Thursday, Topolanek said his government's support for the radar base, which is unpopular with the public, was a display of statesmanlike providence.

'I have to say I do not know a more stupid sentence from the security perspective than this one: 'Nobody is threatening us, so why build defences?'' he said.

Topolanek reiterated that he sees the project as a safeguard against Russia, which has strongly opposed the US plans in the former Eastern Bloc countries, now members of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

'It is entirely unacceptable for me to become the premier of the government that will obediently stand to attention and again open the door to Russian imperialism,' he said.

Russia has called the shield a danger to its own security and has threatened to aim its short-range missiles at the central European bases.

The outgoing Bush administration has so far failed to convince Moscow that the bases are to protect most of the continent from potential Iranian long-range missiles.