POLAND: Poland may host part of the United States' controversial missile defence system, its new prime minister said yesterday. The announcement is likely to increase friction between Warsaw and the Kremlin.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said Poland had been in talks with Washington for several years about helping to create a multibillion dollar "space umbrella" that could track and destroy ballistic missiles long before they hit their target.
"We have not made any decision on this issue, but a discussion is open," said Mr Marcinkiewicz, whose conservative party narrowly won a recent general election. "This is an important issue for Poland, related to our security and to our co-operation with an important ally," he added.
"We have opened a public debate on the issue. We will not take decisions that would be bad for Poland."
The US insists that its missile defence initiative is vital to neutralise the threat from so-called rogue states such as North Korea, which, it says, could use ballistic missiles to attack an adversary with a nuclear, biological or chemical warhead.
But the plan has disturbed Moscow, which fears that its own nuclear deterrent would be weakened and a new arms race could begin in which Russia could not compete. If part of the system was based in Poland, for decades a Soviet subject state but now a frequent critic of the Kremlin, then Russia's disquiet could only increase.
In its programme the new government said it backed such a system, which has been dubbed "Star Wars" after a similar plan mooted in the 1980s by then US president Ronald Reagan.
It is not clear whether Poland would host a radar station for tracking incoming ballistic missiles or a launch site for interceptor rockets aimed at destroying them, although Warsaw's Industrial Telecommunications Institute, a radar maker, confirmed that in May 2003 it signed a deal with Boeing to co-operate on the project.
Adam Rotfeld, foreign minister in the defeated left-wing government, called the new government "amateurish". He said Washington had asked Poland to remain discreet about any co-operation so as not to alarm the Kremlin.
"We held a delicate dialogue on this matter with the US, and were asked to be discreet because the US wants to dilute Russia's concerns," Mr Rotfeld said. "And then this issue pops up in a government document."
