POLAND/US:WARSAW AND Washington have signed a preliminary agreement to install 10 American missile interceptors in Poland, as concerns over the Georgian conflict helped break an 18-month deadlock.
Prime minister Donald Tusk appeared on national television yesterday evening, announcing that US negotiators had agreed to help boost Poland's air defences in exchange for it hosting part of Washington's missile shield.
"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," said Mr Tusk.
"The events in the Caucasus show clearly that such security guarantees are indispensable."
Foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who headed the final round of talks in Warsaw, said "the rising international tension, which has caught us by surprise, makes security guarantees even more important than ever".
Talks had dragged on for months, foundering on US unwillingness to make Patriot missiles available to boost Poland's air defences. At one point, the Polish government considered postponing a deal until after the US presidential election.
According to early details of the agreement yesterday, Washington will supply Warsaw with some Patriot missiles for free and sell others at a discount.
From 2012, American troops will run the anti-missile facility from a new US army base to be established in northern Poland.
The Czech government has already agreed to host the second part of the shield, a radar station.
Washington says the system, scheduled to go online between 2011 and 2013 is necessary to protect the US and Europe from attack by what it calls "rogue states", namely Iran.
Reaching agreement became more complicated after it became entangled in a row over control of foreign policy between Mr Tusk and his political rival, President Lech Kaczynski.
The president is an enthusiastic backer of the project and had expressed frustration in recent months at delays in agreement.
Along with membership of Nato and the EU, Mr Kaczynski said the missiles would guarantee Polish security against Russia.
Moscow has raised objections to the plan, claiming it will "complicate" global security. Last year, former Russian president Vladimir Putin vowed to aim its missiles at the new facility.
Residents of Redzikowo, near Slupsk, northern Poland, came out yesterday to picket the 430-hectare site earmarked for the project.
Opinion polls in Poland and the Czech Republic show little public appetite for the missile shield.