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Last Updated: Oct 28th, 2008 - 17:57:18 |
WARSAW (Reuters) - Washington's negotiator John Rood is expected to visit Warsaw later this week in a bid to break an impasse in Polish-U.S. talks over hosting a U.S. missile shield, a U.S. official said on Monday.
The United States wants to deploy 10 rocket interceptors in Poland and a radar in the neighboring Czech Republic as part of its missile shield against ballistic rockets it says could be fired by states such as Iran.
The Czechs have already signed up to the radar but the negotiations with Poland have been dragging on for months since Donald Tusk took over in November as prime minister from his pro-U.S. conservative predecessor.
In July Tusk rejected the latest U.S. offer as inadequate, arguing Poland's security must be increased in return for hosting the shield, vehemently opposed by Warsaw's former overlord Russia.
Tusk, holding a presser later on Monday, said this condition became even tougher after the Russian-Georgian fights started four days ago.
"The example of Georgia shows strongly how important is today the security of Poland and of the whole region," Tusk said.
"In the whole post-Soviet region realistic guarantees of security and territorial integrity are even more important today."
In exchange for hosting the shield, Poland wants the United States to boost Polish air defenses with cash and equipment supplies such as long-range Patriot batteries.
"We are expecting John Rood to visit on August 13-15," said Andrew Schilling, spokesman at the U.S. embassy in Warsaw. "But the visit is not 100 percent sure due to unknown developments in Georgia for example."
The missile shield has become an emotive issue in Poland, largely because it has become entangled with domestic politics with rivals using the deal to score points with voters.
Poland's outgoing negotiator on the U.S. shield lashed out at his own government for not clinching the deal despite good terms on the table.
Witold Waszczykowski said in an interview with the Polish edition of Newsweek published on Monday that Tusk was driven by domestic political considerations rather than Poland's strategic interests in rejecting the shield offer last month.
"I have been taking part in talks (between Tusk and his top aides) and I had the impression that the political interest had priority over the country's security," Waszczykowski, a deputy foreign minister until he was relieved of his duties in recent days, said.
At the conference, Tusk said he signed Waszczykowski's dismissal because the former negotiator found out to be disloyal.
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