(Adds Iran comments following signing)
By Arshad Mohammed and Jan Lopatka
PRAGUE, July 8 (Reuters) - The United States and the Czech
Republic signed a treaty on Tuesday allowing Washington to build
part of a missile defence shield in the central European state
despite opposition from its former Cold War master Russia.
The deal to create a radar station southwest of Prague was
marred by a failure to seal a corresponding pact with Poland,
where Washington wants to put 10 interceptor rockets that would
be guided by the Czech site.
Washington says the shield would defend it and its European
allies against missile attacks from a foe such as Iran, and
points to intelligence suggesting Tehran could develop a
long-range missile capable of striking its soil by 2015.
"We face with the Iranians, and so do our allies and
friends, a growing missile threat that is getting ever longer
and ever deeper, and where the Iranian appetite for nuclear
technology ... is still unchecked," U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said in Prague.
Rice, who signed the treaty with Czech Foreign Minister
Karel Schwarzenberg, all but ruled out going to neighbouring
Poland after meeting its foreign minister on Monday.
Talks with Warsaw have run into a snag over Warsaw's demands
for billions of dollars to modernise its army and air defences.
Rice said Monday's negotiations had been constructive but
she would not predict whether the two sides would reach a deal.
"I believe strongly that we are at a place where these
negotiations need to come to a conclusion," Rice told reporters.
"We are going to have to see if we can close the remaining gap."
Under the proposed $3.5 billion system, an sensors and radar
would be used to detect an enemy missile in flight and guide a
ground-based interceptor to destroy it without using explosives.
BASES NEAR RUSSIA
Russia says the shield is a threat and has threatened to aim
nuclear missiles at central Europe if it is deployed. Washington
says the 10 rockets are no match for Russia's atomic arsenal.
The United States was willing to make arrangements to make
the system transparent to Moscow, but Russia would also have to
discuss this directly with the Czech Republic, Rice said.
Political analysts say the bases in the former Soviet bloc
would raise U.S. security interests in the region at a time when
Russia grows more assertive about its role on the global stage.
"Moscow, of course, sees the move as a provocation and as a
long-term security threat, and will seek to extract a hefty
geopolitical or strategic price for going along," said Alexandr
Kliment, an analyst at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after meeting U.S.
President George W. Bush on Monday the two sides should keep
talking despite failing to overcome differences on the shield.
But Russian media quoted a Russian foreign ministry source
as saying the deal complicated European security and cancelled
out consultations with Moscow on the shield.
"A step has been taken ... which in our view has not added
to security on the European continent. More than that, it has
complicated problems of security," Interfax news agency quoted a
senior foreign ministry source as saying.
Rice and Schwarzenberg faced questions both about whether
the system would ultimately be able to stop missiles and whether
Bush's successor would follow through with the plan. Critics of
the system say more tests are needed to prove it works.
"It's hard for me to believe that an American president is
not going to want to have the capability to defend our
territory, the territory of our allies ... against that kind of
missile threat," said Rice.
HURDLES
The shield still faces hurdles, including heavy opposition
in the Czech Republic, a country of 10.4 million that the
Soviets occupied for two decades after invading in 1968.
It also faces obstacles to ratification in the Czech
parliament, where the government has just 100 seats in the
200-seat chamber. Some deputies say they will oppose it along
with the Social-Democrat opposition in a vote that could come
after a new U.S. administration takes over in January.
An opinion poll last month showed 68 percent of Czechs were
against the shield, while only 24 percent supported it.
"We believe that this could start another arms race, and we
believe this will not raise the security of the Czech Republic,"
said Frantisek Smrcka, who along with other protesters unfurled
a huge banner shaped like a target in the Czech capital.
Rice will also travel to Bulgaria and Georgia on her
European trip this week.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Writing by Michael Winfrey;
Editing by Timothy Heritage)
