US defends Polish and Czech missile base plans

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Thursday (5 March) strongly defended the planned US missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic as being directed against real threats from Iran, not Russia, with whom NATO foreign ministers agreed to resume talks.

"The Czech Republic and Poland in our view have been very visionary and looking over the horizon of what we have to be prepared for if we are not successful in preventing the acquisition and proliferation of these weapons of mass destruction," Ms Clinton said at a press conference after her first meeting with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

She maintained, as the previous Bush administration did, that the shield was not aimed against Russia - as Moscow has claimed - but threats coming from Iran and potentially from terrorist networks. The shield would have see a radar installed in the Czech Republic and interceptors missiles in Poland.

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