NATO warns US missile defence could divide allies

BRUSSELS, Mar 12 (Reuters) NATO's secretary-general has warned that a proposed US missile defence system risks splitting the alliance between those the programme would protect and those it would not, the Financial Times reported today.

''When it comes to missile defence, there shouldn't be an A-League and a B-league within NATO,'' the newspaper quoted Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as saying in an interview. ''For me it is the indivisibility of security that is the guiding principle.

Many NATO allies are concerned about the US system, which would be based in Poland and the Czech Republic to shoot down missiles fired by what Washington calls ''rogue states'' such as Iran and North Korea.

The Financial Times quoted NATO officials as saying that the US programme would protect almost all of Europe but not the southeast, which would need an extra, shorter-range system because of its proximity to Iran.

The paper quoted de Hoop Scheffer as saying the US programme could be complemented by existing NATO plans to put a battlefield missile defence system into operation by 2010.

''We are already moving forward with developing systems to protect deployed forces, rather than population centres and territories,'' it quoted him as saying. ''There could be at a later stage a relationship between the two systems.'' De Hoop Scheffer made clear he believed there was a real missile threat to Europe.

''There is every reason to believe that, given the North Korean missile tests and the Iranian capability and what the Iranians are saying,'' the FT quoted him as saying.

At a news conference after an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, French President Jacques Chirac warned the US system could reopen old divisions on the European continent.

The Czech Republic last week rejected criticism of talks with the United States over its possible participation after Luxembourg said it threatened new tensions with Russia.

Britain has voiced an interest in taking part in any US system.

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