Two ministries have independently confirmed that the country has been in talks with the United States for at least two years about building a U.S. missile interceptor base here.

Negotiations "are proceeding on the subject of the possibility of an American anti-missile base in the Czech Republic," Defense Ministry spokesman Jan Pejšek told The Prague Post April 5.

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Vít Kolář said the project would be a boon to the economy, but that Parliament would have to approve any agreement before the United States could begin building a site.

The base would be the largest foreign facility in the U.S. missile defense program, and would be in a position to intercept long-range missiles launched from countries to the east, notably Iran, defense experts say. They add that placing a base here, or elsewhere in Central or Eastern Europe, is likely to meet with resistance from Russia, which views such a plan as a threat to its own weapons capability.

A report in The Washington Times March 24 quoted an anonymous senior defense official as saying the U.S. government is close to announcing plans to build the site in either the Czech Republic or Poland. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency

(MDA) expects to make a decision about where to build the site as early as this fall, agency director Lt. Gen. Henry Obering said at a press conference March 20.

"Discussions are continuing, but at this point it is not known when an agreement will be reached," said U.S. Defense Department spokeswoman Lt. Col. Tracy O'Grady-Walsh.

Czech Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek initially called The Washington Times report "political science fiction." In an e-mail to The Prague Post, however, he conceded that talks were taking place, but that any proposed base is now simply an idea, not a definite project.

"There is no particular proposal to discuss," he said. "What has been going on so far, for a number of years, is an exchange of information between the U.S. Defense [Department] and European experts, including experts from the Czech Republic. Thus, the whole thing is not at a stage when it can be discussed by politicians."

New realities

A missile defense shield has long been a controversial topic in the United States, with opponents saying the need for it ended with the Cold War. But hawks have countered that the end of the Cold War ushered in a new era in which threats to U.S. interests can extend well beyond one or two superpowers.

Thirty-five years ago, eight countries in the world had the technology to launch a ballistic missile. The MDA currently lists at least nine countries that now have that capability in the Middle East alone.

The United States has nearly doubled its funding for missile defense since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and is likely to push that total higher: U.S. President George W. Bush has asked for a record $9.3 billion (215.3 billion Kč) for missile defense in the 2007 federal fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 in the United States.

The MDA plans to set aside $118 million for a Central Europe base in the same fiscal year.

The defense shield, still a fledgling technology, uses satellites and radar to detect and track hostile missiles and, if necessary, sends interceptor missiles intended to destroy them.

The program has its skeptics in the United States, including officials in the Pentagon.

The United States currently has two missile interceptor bases: one at Fort Greely in Alaska and another at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Experts say the United States has been looking to add a third arm to this defense shield somewhere in Central Europe for years.

Its "geographical location and proximity to the Middle East would offer favorable intercept solutions to defend both Europe and the U.S. against an intermediate to long-range ballistic missile," O'Grady-Walsh said.

Tom Karako, editor of www.missilethreat.com and director of the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank in California, said Russia is likely to fight any missile interceptor site in Central Europe by claiming such a facility in the region would negate its own offensive nuclear arsenal.

"The 800-pound gorilla in the room is Russia," he said. "That is one of the big diplomatic issues that is causing people to walk so lightly, and be so guarded and cautious about saying anything."

Czech benefit

Czech officials say that such a site in the country would be large enough to bring more jobs here and strengthen the economy.

"It would certainly provide a lot of work opportunities," said Miloš Titz, head of Parliament's Defense and Security Committee.

Alexandr Vondra, former Czech ambassador to the United States and former deputy foreign affairs minister, said speculation about a missile base here has been brewing for at least a decade.

Nearly 62 percent of Czechs said that their country should have a missile defense system, according to a 2005 poll by the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, an organization in Virginia tracking the issue.

"The public wouldn't be against it," Vondra said.

U.S. officials are not talking about the operational characteristics of a missile base in Central Europe, including how large it would be.

Karako said the size of the base would depend on the deal struck between the United States and its partner, but would probably look similar to the site in Alaska.

That base houses nine anti-ballistic missiles, and there are plans to add two additional interceptors there during the next three years.

The base in California houses two anti-ballistic missiles.