U.S. offers to keep missile shield on stand-by

By Kristin Roberts

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The United States has proposed delaying the activation of parts of its European missile defense shield if Russia cooperates on the project, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday.

The U.S. plans to place interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic as part of a system Washington says is needed to counter possible attacks from "rogue states" including Iran and North Korea.

Russia argues the system would be a threat to its security.

Gates said the possible delay was one of the proposals he and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put forward in talks with Russian officials to try to ease Moscow's concern and win its cooperation over the defense system.

"We continue to encourage the Russians to partner with us in missile defense and continue our efforts to reassure them that these facilities are not aimed at Russia and could benefit Russia," he said.

Gates said activation of the missile shield could depend on "definitive proof" of a threat.

"We would consider tying together the activation of the sites in Poland and the Czech Republic with definitive proof of the threat, in other words, Iranian missile testing and so on," Gates said.

"We have not fully developed this proposal, but the idea was we would go forward with the negotiations, we would complete the negotiations, we would develop the sites, build the sites but perhaps we would delay activating them until there was concrete proof of the threat from Iran," he told reporters in Prague.