Poland says it will host U.S. anti-missile site, Czech Republic too.

The Polish Defence Ministry said that Warsaw still negotiates with the USA about a possible placement of a U.S. anti-missile site in Poland, while the Czech Foreign Minister said recently that it is almost sure that the USA will ask Prague to join its defence programme.

Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda made the statement on Czech Television on Sunday, but he did not specify the form of possible Czech participation in the anti-missile protection programme.

Various forms of participation include the stationing of a radar on Czech territory, or the building of a site with 10 missiles and manned by hundreds of soldiers.

The English-language weekly Prague Post quoted the Polish weekly Przegland as writing recently that the Americans tend to station the site in Poland, close to the Baltic Sea.

"We are still negotiating, no decision has been made as yet," the Polish Defence Ministry's spokesman Piotr Paszkowski said today.

He also declined to react to Svoboda's weekend statement.

A group of U.S. experts have already visited the Czech Republic and Poland to examine possible suitable localities.

The Pentagon wants to build a site in Europe that would be able to intercept possible enemy missiles launched from Iran and other risk countries.

According to available information, the site should be put in operation by 2011.

Czech politicians take differnet stands on the site. A recent Median poll showed that a crushing majority of Czechs are opposed to the stationing of U.S. missiles on Czech territory.

Source: