A return to Cold War posturing

The base is part of a global anti-missile system designed to shoot down ballistic missiles potentially fired from what Washington calls rogue states.

"The government, the President and myself, are in favour of the anti-missile shield," Kaczyński said. His remarks were the strongest indication yet that the government is likely to accept the US plan.

Russia, however, clearly sees the move as hostile and warned the US last week that it might pull out of a Cold War nuclear arms treaty because of Washington's plans to build the shield. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty was signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in December 1987.

When asked whether Russia would pull out of the agreement, General Yuri Baluyevsky, head of the Russian general staff, said: "We will see how our American partners are going to act. What they are doing at the moment - creating a third positioning region for anti-missile defense in Europe - is totally inexplicable."

The United States says that the shield is needed to protect Europe from Iranian missiles. Russian officials, however, claim Washington and its NATO allies are building the shield because of Russia. "This is in no way directed at Russia ... We have offered to cooperate with Russia on missile defense because we believe that we face a common set of threats emanating from the Middle East as well as other areas," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

McCormack added that although Washington had received reports "from various Russian sources" that Moscow might pull out of the treaty, it had not heard anything formally from the Russian government. (Reuters)