(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-10 21:10

PRAGUE -- The Polish and Czech governments will coordinate talks with the United States on building parts of a US missile defence shield in the two central European countries, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday.

The US administration is seeking to deploy 10 rockets in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic as part of its global shield against long-range ballistic missiles. "We want to coordinate our steps and proceedings in the course of negotiations," Tusk told a news conference after meeting his Czech counterpart Mirek Topolanek.

"The pace and the cycle of the talks should also be agreed," he said.

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Polish Defence Minister Bogdan Klich told Reuters on Wednesday that Poland would not host the missile defence base unless Washington commits to boost Polish air defences.

Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has earlier said that Warsaw was in no rush to decide on hosting the anti-missile shield base before US elections as a change of guard at the White House could scuttle the project.

Tusk said there was no need to wait for the November presidential election in the United States, adding that the key was a satisfactory agreement including security guarantees.

Topolanek said there was no need to rush the negotiations. He said in an ideal case the Czech government may submit the complete deal to parliament for ratification after the April NATO summit in Bucharest.

"We prefer quality to speed," he said.

US officials say the shield will protect the United States and its allies from attack by what it calls "rogue" states, or an al Qaeda-type organisation which could in the future seize a nuclear weapon.  

The plan has met fierce resistance from Russia, which says the central European part of the shield would threaten its security and upset the balance of military power in Europe.

The new Polish centre-right government led by Tusk has taken a tougher line towards the United States in the negotiations than the previous administration of conservative Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who lost power in October.

Tusk said he would seek to talk to Russia about the shield, but any decision on the project was solely up to the three countries involved in the talks.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak is currently on a visit to Poland to discuss the shield.

Klich will travel to the United States to discuss the shield on January 14-16, and Topolanek will visit Washington in February.