Rice says Russian missile shield reaction "bizarre"

By David Alexander

WARSAW (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that Russia's reaction to the U.S.-Polish missile shield agreement "borders on the bizarre" but denied Washington wanted a confrontation with Moscow.

"I hope that there are not people in Russia who are hankering for the days of U.S.-Soviet confrontation because they are over," Rice told journalists in Warsaw after signing an agreement to base 10 U.S. interceptor rockets in Poland. "The Cold War is over."

Asked about a Russian general's threat to target Poland with nuclear weapons because of the anti-missile defense system, Rice said she understood why NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer had denounced the remark as "pathetic rhetoric."

"What the secretary general was referring to is fulminating about how you're going to attack Poland because there are 10 interceptors aimed at long-range threats of the future from countries like Iran when you've been offered all kinds of measures to demonstrate" that the missiles are not aimed at

Russia, Rice said. "(It) just borders on the bizarre."

In an interview with CNN, Rice said Russia knows NATO has a commitment and obligation to defend Poland.

"They (Russia) must know that the United States would never permit an attack on the territory of an ally under Article 5," said Rice, referring to part of the North Atlantic Treaty that says an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.

The Russian Foreign Ministry later announced on its website that Moscow would react to the U.S.-Polish anti-missile deal "not only through diplomatic protests."

But a U.S. State Department spokesman, asked about the Russian statement, said Rice had fully addressed the Russian reaction to the missile deal in her remarks to journalists in Warsaw.

SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

Rice told reporters that NATO acted on Tuesday to counteract a Russian effort, through its attack on Georgia, to establish a new sphere of influence in eastern Europe similar to that of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

"What we have to prevent is the notion that we can draw a new line at Ukraine and Georgia," Rice said.

"That was really what NATO was doing yesterday," she said. "This was not so much about punishing Russia ... The issue was helping Georgia and making very clear to Russia that if what was intended was to intimidate NATO from deepening its relationships with Ukraine and Georgia, they didn't do it."

When Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili sent his forces to reimpose government control on the pro-Moscow breakaway region of South Ossetia nearly two weeks ago, Russian forces crushed the Georgian army and advanced into Georgia proper.

A French-brokered ceasefire calling for Russian withdrawal was agreed last week, but Rice said the United States saw few signs of Russian forces leaving. She rejected the Russian stance that its troops were acting as peacekeepers.