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WARSAW : Poland and the United States disagree over the impact of a planned US missile shield on Poland's security should Warsaw agree to the installation, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday.
"We're in negotiations to effectively reinforce our security. The Americans have a different evaluation than we do about the effects the missile shield could have on our security," Tusk told reporters at a press conference in Warsaw.
"America has a different geographic situation from that of Poland," Tusk said, adding that Warsaw will only welcome a US anti-ballistic missile shield on its soil "if there is a guarantee that our security is reinforced."
For Washington, the missile shield is primarily intended to protect the United States from possible attacks by so-called "rogue states", notably Iran. Initial plans call for the 10 interceptor missile silos in Poland coupled with a high-powered radar in the neighbouring Czech Republic by 2012-2013.
Russia sees the project as a grave menace to its security on its very doorstep. In rhetoric reminiscent of the Cold War, Moscow has threatened to point its missiles at Poland should it agree to host the US installation.
Concerned by the potential risks of accepting the project, Poland is seeking extra security guarantees from Washington, including aid in modernising its armed forces, particularly in the form of Patriot 3 or THAAD anti-missile interceptors.
Speaking at the same conference as Tusk, Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski termed "banal" a recent press comment by US Assistant Secretary of State Stephen Mull suggesting that Poland must finance the lion's share of its military modernisation on its own.
"It's self-evident that Poland must finance the majority of the costs of modernisation itself, but the question is whether the United States are capable of respecting the commitments made in this regard by President Bush," Sikorski said.
Earlier this month Warsaw and Washington decided to set up four expert working groups to analyse the threats to Poland of agreeing to a US missile-silo base as well as how to share intelligence, modernise Poland's armed forces and finance the upgrade.
The groups are expected to submit their proposals by the end of July. Washington began talks on the missile shield plan with Warsaw and Prague in May 2007. The Czech cabinet approved Wednesday the main accord on the anti-missile radar, but the final decision is still subject to approval by parliament.
NATO endorsed the plan last month, but Russia has kept up its opposition.
On Friday Russia's new President Dimitry Medvedev and China's President Hu Jintao said in Beijing it "would not contribute to maintaining strategic balance and stability."
In a joint statement that did not explicitly name the United States, the two leaders also said the missile shield plan "hinders international arms control and non-proliferation efforts."
- AFP /ls
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