U.S. to ease Russian concerns over missile shield in C.Europe

VIENNA, March 23 (RIA Novosti) - Washington will try to reassure officials in Moscow that the missile defense shield it plans to deploy in Central Europe does not undermine Russia's national security, a U.S. envoy said Friday.

Washington plans to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic, saying the system will help protect the U.S. and its allies in Europe from an air strike by Iran, which the West suspects of trying to produce nuclear weapons. But Russia sees the prospective deployment as a threat to its own national security, and fears the base may trigger a new arms race.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mark Pekala said, "It's totally untrue that they have upset the strategic balance. I certainly don't think there's a new Cold War here. We had one, and that was enough, and I think both sides think the same."

Pekala, who is currently in Vienna to discuss the U.S. shield plan with ambassadors to the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said Washington wants its $3.5 million Central European missile shield operational by the year 2012, as, according to defense estimates, Iran could obtain a long-range missile tipped with a nuclear warhead and capable of striking European targets by 2015.

Pekala insisted that Washington is mindful of Moscow's concerns and that the Russians have nothing to worry about, as the system will not target them and is designed uniquely to bolster European security against a potential strike from the Middle East.

He also said the rockets to be deployed in Central Europe are no match for Moscow's arsenal as

they weigh only 875 kilograms (165 pounds) and will be incapable of carrying warheads.

According to Pekala, U.S. officials are open to the idea of merging the shield with a Russian system.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier in a newspaper interview that the U.S. plans to create a national missile defense shield would undermine Russia's relations with NATO and that a joint system seemed therefore a far better option.

"There are collective alternatives to the unilateral project [to build] a national defense shield, including a NATO-Russia theater missile defense system that would be mindful of the security interests of all," said Lavrov.