NATO embraces missile shield, Czechs pledge radar

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - NATO leaders endorsed a planned U.S. missile shield for Europe on Thursday that Russia strongly opposes, and U.S. and Czech officials agreed on deployment of the first element -- an advanced radar.

U.S. officials told reporters at a NATO summit that a final communique on the missile defense system, parts of which would be stationed in Poland and the Czech Republic, would "recognize the substantive contribution to the protection of the allies".

That was the message Washington had sought from the summit in Bucharest after it became clear allies would not go as far as taking procurement decisions on a possible NATO add-on system to cover those parts of southeast Europe not under its umbrella.

Washington says the shield will protect the United States and its allies from attack by what it calls "rogue" states such as Iran and North Korea.

Russia has denounced as destabilizing the U.S. plans to install 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic as part of the system, and ordinary people in many European countries are skeptical of the need for it.

Russia regards the system as a threat to its security and sees the construction of the shield on the territory of its former Warsaw Pact allies as an intrusion into its sphere of influence.

One senior U.S. official, however, said confidence-building measures that Washington had offered Moscow "really blunted Russia's argument that this was dangerous to Russia and our allies could see that".

RADAR DEAL

Washington and Prague announced on Thursday they had clinched the radar deal. Czech Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said it would probably be signed in May.

Talks are continuing between Washington and Poland on basing interceptor missiles in the former Soviet bloc state, but Warsaw is holding out for greater aid in modernizing its armed forces.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance had decided in Bucharest that "there is a threat" from ballistic missiles and "allied security must be indivisible in the face of it."

He also said the alliance would order a report for its summit next year on options to expand missile defense protection to areas of NATO that would not be covered by the U.S. systems to be installed in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The U.S. officials, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said the missile defense system could ultimately involve the Russians if they chose to cooperate with it rather than oppose it.

Washington and Moscow have been trying to plot a path to consensus on the missile shield as part of a framework on strategic relations for outgoing presidents Bush and Putin to leave their successors.

That framework could be signed as soon as this weekend in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi where Bush will meet Putin for the last time during their presidencies. But the wording on missile defense remains one of the unfinished parts of the document, U.S. officials said.

As part of efforts to allay Russian concerns, the Bush administration has proposed confidence-building measures such as more "transparency" in the U.S. system and not switching it on until the threat from a "rogue state" is significant.

Schwarzenberg cautioned, however, that any inspections of the radar site by Russia could take place only with the agreement of Czech authorities.

"That is something which we would speak with the Russians about ourselves," he told reporters at the NATO summit. "This has to be clear."

(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray; Editing by Timothy Heritage)