Bush proceeds on East Europe missile shield talks

Washington, May 4: The Bush administration said today it will launch negotiations this month to deploy a missile shield in Eastern Europe despite Russia's objections and growing opposition in the Democratic-led US Congress.

''I plan to lead an interagency team to Warsaw and Prague in late May to begin formal negotiations on the placement of missile defense facilities in those countries,'' Assistant Secretary of State John Rood told a meeting of two House of Representatives subcommittees.

A separate House subcommittee voted unanimously this week to slash 160 million dollar from 310 million dollar sought by President George W Bush to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic. The money could be restored in other legislation in the House or Senate.

Bush says the system is needed to protect Europe and the United States from missiles developed by Iran, but the project has angered Russia which calls it a threat to its security. Russian President Vladimir Putin froze commitments under a post-Cold War treaty on conventional forces in protest.

Critical US lawmakers say there has not been enough consultation with the NATO military alliance or testing of the missile shield technology. Some also argued that there had not been enough sensitivity shown to Russia.

Rood, assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, and Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, urged lawmakers to restore the money.

''Obviously that presents issues for us in discussions with those allies,'' Rood said.

It was not surprising the Russians would dislike a plan to ''stick it to them'' by placing a US missile shield ''in what used to be their allies,'' said Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat.

During the Cold War, Poland and the Czech Republic (then part of Czechoslovakia) belonged to the Moscow-dominated Warsaw Pact. They are now part of NATO.

Rood and Fried said there was no threat to Russia because the systems to be deployed were literally not fast enough to intercept Russia's strategic forces.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates traveled to Russia last month to try to convince Putin the missile shield was not a strategic threat.

The developing danger was from a nuclear-armed Iran, whose leadership already had used threatening rhetoric against Europe and the United States, Rood and Fried said.

''Iran already possesses many medium- and short-ranged missiles,'' Fried said. He cited US intelligence community estimates that Iran could develop long-range missiles capable of reaching all of Europe and the United States by 2015.

''The situation we want to avoid is one where Europe would be in a position of absolute vulnerability to an Iranian nuclear arsenal, even a small one, thereby decoupling transatlantic security,'' Fried said. Iran denies Western fears it harbors a secret atomic bomb project, saying it is enriching uranium for electricity.

Reuters>