Germany's Schroeder slams US missile shield plans

DRESDEN, Germany, Mar 11 (Reuters) US plans to build a high-tech missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic are dangerous and absurd, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said today.

''The missile defence system planned by the United States and which is to be installed in eastern Europe is politically extremely dangerous,'' Schroeder said in a speech in Dresden.

''It is viewed, rightly, in Russia, and not only there, as an attempt to establish an absurd encirclement policy, a policy which is everything but in the interest of Europe,'' he said.

The United States wants to set up a radar system in the Czech Republic and a missile battery in Poland as part of a shield that would counter missiles fired by what Washington calls ''rogue states'' such as Iran and North Korea.

Moscow sees the system as an encroachment on its former sphere of influence and an attempt to shift the post-Cold War balance of power. Germany has criticised the project's planners for failing to discuss it sufficiently with Russia.

Schroeder said the missile shield plan was pushing Russia further away from the West at a time when the European Union should be trying to strengthen ties with Moscow.

''What we need instead is the exact opposite. Out of our own interest we must align Russia as closely as possible to Europe and European structures,'' he said.

Schroeder has famously referred to Russia President Vladimir Putin as an ''impeccable democrat'' in the past and reiterated that view in interviews last year when his memoirs were released.

Less than a month after leaving office in November 2005, Schroeder took a position as chairman of a controversial German-Russian gas pipeline consortium that he helped set up with Putin -- a move for which he was sharply criticised.

Schroeder has a long history of criticising the United States. He was re-elected in 2002 largely due to his outspoken opposition to US President George W Bush's plans to invade Iraq.

Reuters MS DB2236