Spain to host U.S. missile defense ships

The United States and Spain have reached an agreement that will strengthen efforts to build a missile defense system in Europe by basing U.S. anti-missile warships at the Rota navy base on Spain's southwestern coast, senior U.S. defense officials said.

The agreement was to be formally announced later on Wednesday at NATO headquarters in Brussels by Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

The basing agreement is part of President Barack Obama's so-called phased adaptive approach to missile defense, which calls for an initial deployment of ship-based anti-ballistic missiles in the eastern Mediterranean followed by ground-based systems in Romania and Poland.

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