Polish PM rules out referendum on US missile shield

WARSAW, Feb 13 (Reuters) Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski today ruled out a referendum on whether Poland should agree to host a US missile defence system.

The United States is investing billions of dollars in a Missile Defence Initiative (MDI), designed to shoot down ballistic missiles that Washington says could be fired at it and its allies by what it calls ''rogue'' states.

Washington has asked former Soviet satellites Poland and the Czech Republic to host part of the system, provoking an angry response from Russia.

Asked on public radio if Poles should have a chance to vote on the issue, Kaczynski said: ''It would not make the slightest sense.'' He said Russia's objections, expressed in blunt language by President Vladimir Putin at last weekend's Munich security conference, should not be blown out of proportion.

''According to some, the speech heralded a return to the Cold War but I would not exaggerate,'' he said.

Poland has seen its alliance with the United States following the collapse of communism as strategically important, but opinion polls show most Poles are afraid that hosting the US anti-missile system could expose their country to attack.

Conservative Kaczynski met leaders of all political parties on Monday seeking to secure broad support ahead of an expected vote in parliament.

But his own coalition allies, the leftist Self Defence party which is sceptical about close ties with the United States and favours warmer relations with Russia, said it would seek a national vote on the issue.

The anti-missile system would combine long-range radar and rockets to detect and shoot down missiles carrying nuclear, biological or chemical warheads.

Washington justifies the move as a defence against possible attacks from Iran or North Korea but Putin says only Russia has the long-range missiles the system is designed to counter.

The sites in Poland and the Czech Republic would be the biggest element of the MDI shield outside the United States.

REUTERS SY KP1411