Poland, US close in on missile deal

WARSAW - Warsaw and Washington looked set to close a deal Thursday on basing a US missile shield in Poland, despite Moscow's vehement opposition to the plan which has been given a new edge by Russia's conflict with Georgia.

A source close to the negotiations said Washington had "given very serious consideration" to Warsaw's demands -- Poland wants the United States to provide major security guarantees in return for hosting a base -- and that the "stars are aligning."

After meeting with US negotiator John Rood Wednesday evening, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said their "positions have got closer."

Earlier rounds were often low-key, but the talks have been thrown back into the spotlight by fighting between Russia and Georgia, which like Poland is an ex-communist country turned US ally.

"Today we're facing a new international situation. The situation doesn't change our arguments but in my view reinforces them," Sikorski said.

On Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the talks seemed "on the right track."

"Our arguments about the need for a permanent presence of US troops and missiles on Polish soil have been taken seriously by the American side," he said.

"The events in the Caucasus show clearly that such security guarantees are indispensable," he added.

"As soon as we are sure that Poland's security has been reinforced to the degree we want, we're not going to wait for hours to sign a deal," he pledged.

Washington aims to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland plus a radar facility in the neighbouring Czech Republic by 2011-2013 to complete a system already in place in the United States, Greenland and Britain.

Washington insists the shield is meant to ward off attacks by "rogue states," notably Iran, and is not directed against Russia.

The shield, however, has become a major source of tension with Moscow, which dubs it a security threat aimed at undermining Russia's nuclear deterrent, and has vowed a firm response if the Czechs and Poles go ahead.

"These installations... only worsen the situation. We will be forced to respond to this adequately. The EU and US have been warned," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said last month.

The Czech Republic and Poland were Soviet satellites until 1989, joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.

A US-Polish deal would be highly symbolic, showing a resurgent Russia that flexing its muscle in the Caucasus has not given it a new say on its Cold War-era turf further north.

While Prague signed a radar deal in July, Washington's talks with Warsaw have been grinding on for 15 months.

Amid concerns about the potential risks -- not specifically from Russia --
of hosting the silos, Warsaw has long pressed the US side to provide a THAAD or Patriot air-defence system.

Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said that Washington may deploy a permanent Patriot missile base in Poland, operated by US soldiers.

"One battery is just the start. Once it's based permanently in Poland, that would enable the launch of a modernisation programme which by 2018 would provide a complete anti-missile defence system," Klich told the daily Rzeczpospolita.

"We're also counting on the fact that getting Patriots would allow us discounts on other batteries and open the road to a more modern air defence system, like the THAAD," he said.

Sikorski said Poland also wants a "kind of reinforcement of Article Five" of the treaty binding NATO's 26 nations, which says an attack against one is an attack against the entire alliance.