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US to abandon Europe missile defense plans: WSJ

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-17 15:15

WASHINGTON: The White House will shelve Bush administration plans to build a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing current and former US officials.

Related readings:  US reassures Poland on missile defense  Poland, US sign missile shield deal  US' Gates scoffs at Russian warnings to Poland  Moscow denounces US-Poland missile deal

The decision, likely to help ease tensions with Russia which has opposed the missile shield plans, will be based on a US "determination that Iran's long-range missile program has not progressed as rapidly as previously estimated, reducing the threat to the continental US and major European capitals," the paper said.

US president Barack Obama's top military adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the administration was "very close" to the end of a seven-month review of a missile defense shield proposal. Mullen would not divulge its results.

Obama faces the dilemma of either setting back the gradual progress toward repairing relations with Russia or disappointing two key NATO allies that agreed to host components of the planned system.

Administration officials were expected to brief lawmakers and government officials in Poland and the Czech Republic on results of the review on Thursday, according to an administration official and a congressional reviewing the plans, though the US administration has maintained the Bush administration's argument that the European missile defense ping multiple sensors, including some in the Persian Gulf region, theoretically could provide at least a partial shield for Eastern Europe without basing a full radar and interceptor system so close to Russia.