UPDATE 2-U.S. says open to NATO solution for missile shield

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By Louis Charbonneau

BERLIN, March 15 (Reuters) - The United States is open to suggestions by some Europeans that a missile shield it plans to deploy in Poland and the Czech Republic be made available to NATO, the top U.S. missile defence official said on Thursday.

"What this could do from a NATO context is it could provide the long-range ... protection of a more extensive NATO missile defence capability, and we would welcome that," U.S. Lieutenant General Henry Obering, director of the Missile Defense Agency, told reporters in Berlin.

His comments appeared aimed at reassuring countries such as Germany that have expressed concern the plan could splinter NATO and urged more consultations with Moscow, which sees the shield as an encroachment on its former sphere of influence.

Obering said such talks could help convince the Russians to accept the plan, which the U.S. says is meant to protect Europe and U.S. forces there from missiles fired by what Washington calls "rogue states", such Iran and North Korea.

It would be a mistake for European states to underestimate the threat posed by Iran's missile programmes, Obering said.

Senior European officials, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, have called for the missile defence issue to be debated within the alliance rather than bilaterally.

Merkel has vowed to make this point to Polish leaders when she visits Warsaw on Friday.

Last week Polish officials said Warsaw needed a bilateral security pact with the United States because it was concerned NATO lacked the resolve to counter any serious threats.

PERPLEXING RUSSIAN REACTION

European diplomats say Merkel, who is presiding over Germany's European Union presidency, is also eager to keep the debate from becoming an EU issue, which could interfere with her plans to revive the bloc's constitution.

Obering said Washington was perplexed by the negative reaction from Moscow, which views the shield as aimed at Russia's missile programme -- and an attempt to shift the post-Cold War balance of power.

"This in no way, shape or form threatens the Russian missile fleet," he said, adding that discussions with both Russia and NATO on the shield had been under way for over a year.

"The difficulties with the Russians primarily centre around the locations," Obering said. Moscow finds the idea of Czech and Polish sites too close for comfort.

A European official said NATO members were previously reluctant to discuss the missile shield and have only recently agreed to talk about it in the alliance in response to the fierce criticism from Moscow. "The Czechs and Americans have been calling for a NATO discussion for a long time and now it's happening," he said.

Obering was in Berlin to explain the plan to install a missile battery in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic to German officials and lawmakers.

German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler, in an interview on German radio on Thursday, suggested the missile shield could spark a new arms race with Russia -- an idea Obering rejected.

"That's not the arms race we're worried about," Obering said. "The arms race we're worried about is the one in Iran."

Erler also criticised decisions of nuclear powers Britain, France and the United States to modernise their atomic arsenals which he said would complicate non-proliferation efforts.

Keywords: SHIELD GERMANY/