AFP
Wednesday, February 21, 2007

BERLIN (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here on Wednesday that a planned missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic was designed to counter a threat from Iran.

"We have a growing Iranian missile threat and we need to be able to deal with that," Rice told reporters ahead of a meeting in the German capital of the Quartet for Middle East peace.

"Everybody understands that with a growing Iranian missile threat which is quite pronounced there need to be ways to deal with that problem.

"These missile systems are for purposes having to do with post 9/11 threats," Rice said.

"Poland and the Czech Republic are independent countries. They make their own decisions" and they had decided to participate in the scheme, she added.

Rice, who has extensive knowledge of missile systems, dismissed suggestions that the planned shield posed a threat to neighbouring Russia.

"Anyone who knows anything about this will tell you there is no way that 10 interceptors in Poland and a radar site in the Czech Republic are a threat to Russia, that they are somehow going to diminish Russia's deterrent of thousands of warheads."

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