U.S., Poland reach accord on interceptors

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By Nicholas Kralev

U.S. and Polish negotiators have finalized an agreement to base 10 missile interceptors on Polish soil as part of a U.S. defense shield, and it is now up to the Warsaw government to formally approve the deal, officials from both countries said Wednesday.

The Bush administration, ignoring vocal Russian opposition to the future shield, has already reached an accord with the Czech Republic on basing a tracking radar there, which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to sign in Prague next week.

But the Polish deal has been much tougher to negotiate, with Warsaw making bold demands, such as billions of dollars in U.S. investment to upgrade its air defenses.

"The last round of negotiations with the Americans has been finalized," Reuters news agency quoted Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski as saying. "The final offer was delivered to Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Now we only await his political decision."

A senior U.S. official confirmed that a tentative agreement had been reached and that the final decision maker will be Mr. Tusk's government. The official declined to be named because he was discussing private negotiations.

The presumptive Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, supports missile defense, but his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, does not.

"I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space," Mr. Obama said last year.

Mr. Waszczykowski and John Rood, acting undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, finalized the text on Tuesday, the senior U.S. official said.

It was not clear whether a decision by Warsaw will be made in time to be signed during Miss Rice's trip to Europe next week - with some officials not ruling it out, but others saying it will take a while.

"We'll see what we get from Poland," the U.S. official said. "This is serious business, and I don't blame the Poles for being exacting."

He also said that among Warsaw's conditions were NATO approval of the missile defense project and an invitation to Moscow to cooperate, "both of which we have done."

Public opinion in both Poland and the Czech Republic has been skeptical about hosting the U.S. missile shield in fear of being targeted by terrorists as American allies. Washington wants to build it as a defense against attacks from Iran or others in the Middle East.

The negotiations with Poland lasted nearly a year and a half, and the problems that arose during that time prompted the Bush administration to look at former Soviet state Lithuania as a "good alternative," in the words of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

Details of the tentative deal were not revealed, but even if Mr. Tusk approves it, a separate agreement on the legal status of the U.S. base and personnel will have to be negotiated. In addition, both the Polish and Czech accords must be ratified by the countries' parliaments.

Russia has said that the shield would pose a direct threat to its territory, aan assertion the United States has repeatedly denied. Moscow, which rejected Washington's proposal to cooperate, has threatened Poland and the Czech Republic with pointing Russian missiles at them if they agree to host the U.S. bases.

The Bush administration even agreed to provide the Russians access to the sites for inspections, and the terms of those arrangements were some of the most difficult to negotiate, officials said.