Putin's warning reminiscent of Khrushchev-Polish PM

WARSAW, Jun 5 (Reuters) Russian President Vladimir Putin's warning over a U S anti-missile shield in Europe recalled the harshest Soviet rhetoric of the Cold War, Poland's prime minister said today.

Putin has said Russia would revert to its Cold War stance of aiming missiles at Europe if Washington went ahead with its plan to site parts of its shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski told Polish public radio Putin's warning needed to be taken seriously.

''This is language which has never been used by (Boris) Yeltsin, nor (Mikhail) Gorbachev and not even (Leonid) Brezhnev... This is the language of (Nikita) Khrushchev,'' he said.

''There has not been such a sharp conflict in Europe and in the world for a long time...the issue is very serious because in politics words have to be taken seriously.'' U S President George W. Bush visits Poland on June 6 to discuss placing interceptor rockets on Polish territory.

The United States says its shield is aimed at intercepting missiles from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea. Russia argues there is no threat from those countries and views the missile shield as a threat to its national security.

Khrushchev, an uncompromising Soviet leader from 1953 to 1964, took off his shoe and pounded his desk with it during a debate on colonialism at the U N General Assembly in 1960.

REUTERS SYU HT1445