Bush in Poland for missile shield talks

GDANSK, Poland, June 8 (Reuters) President George W Bush arrived in Poland today for talks on a planned US missile shield in central Europe after receiving a surprise Russian counter-offer to base it in Azerbaijan.

Bush, on his way home from the Group of Eight meeting in Germany, was whisked straight off in a helicopter from Gdansk to Jurata, a small resort on the Baltic coast, where he will meet his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski.

Poland has agreed in principle to host 10 US interceptor rockets to shoot down hostile ballistic missiles and the two countries are currently negotiating details of a deal.

The interceptors and a radar in another ex-Soviet satellite, the Czech Republic, would form the European part of the shield Washington is assembling to counter the threat of a nuclear attack from what it calls ''rogue'' states such as Iran.

A sceptical Russia sees the project as undermining its own security and President Vladimir Putin has threatened to revert to the Cold War practice of targeting Russian missiles on Europe if the plan goes ahead.

Upping the ante, Putin made a surprise offer yesterday to let the United States use a Russian-controlled radar in Azerbaijan to intercept any threats from the Middle East.

Today, he said Russia was happy to share information from the radar.

''Qabala completely covers the whole region that worries the Americans,'' Putin told a news conference at the end of a G8 summit, referring to the radar station. ''We are ready on-line and in real-time to hand over all information.'' He appeared to suggest he expected talks between Washington, Warsaw and Prague to be suspended until his offer is studied.

''We hope there will be no unilateral actions until completion of negotiations,'' Putin said. ''We will not be late because Iran does not have these rockets. If Iran starts working on them we will know about it in good time and if we do not we will see the first test-launch.'' BOLD PROPOSAL White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley yesterday described Putin's idea as ''a bold proposal''.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters today the United States would talk to all parties -- NATO, Czech Republic, Poland and Russia.

''Everything is on the table,'' she said. ''We are going to continue talking to Russia. President Putin put forward a very substantive proposal.'' Earlier, Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Robert Szaniawski suggested Warsaw was not expecting Washington to ditch its current plans.

''From the Polish point of view, the negotiations are ongoing. We have not received any signals from the US side that they were planning to abandon plans of cooperation (on the shield),'' said Szaniawski.

A senior US diplomat said Bush was indeed determined to go ahead with the plan and was likely to make this clear when he met Polish President Lech Kaczynski today.

''Regardless of the Russian proposal, negotiations with the Czechs and Poles will go on,'' the diplomat said. ''The US does not see the proposal as a substitute (for the central European anti-missile project), it can only be complementary.'' CONSTRUCTIVE TALKS In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer reacted cautiously to the idea of using the Qabala radar in Azerbaijan.

''I think it is a bit close to the rogue states we are discussing,'' he told a conference about the proposed Russian alternative.

''But it's a bit too early in the day for my final judgment. It is always useful when two presidents are constructively talking to each other on this,'' said de Hoop Scheffer, who has promoted NATO as a forum for talks over the shield plan.

In Baku, Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov told reporters: ''Azerbaijan is ready for such consultations.'' Many commentators in both Poland and Czech Republic saw Putin's offer as a ploy to derail the US plans. But Czech deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra said it showed Russia acknowledged a missile defence system was needed.

''It's excellent news,'' he told the daily Lidove Noviny. ''We always said that the shield is not something aimed against Russia.

It's good that the Russians have started to communicate something other than just 'nyet, nyet nyet'.

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