Foreign Affairs Minister Cyril Svoboda said he is "almost certain" the Czech Republic will host at least part of a U.S. anti-missile defense shield proposed for Europe, even as opposition to the controversial program mounts nationwide.

"We are going to be approached [by the United States] with a certain concept, but we don't know how big the Czech Republic's role will be," Svoboda told Czech Television Aug. 6.

The next day, during an interview with The Prague Post, Svoboda said, "Of course I knew this all along. I am in contact with the United States nearly every day."

The country could store some 10 missiles as well as hundreds of U.S. soldiers, Svoboda said.

With many Czech officials, including Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek, remaining mum on the status of negotiations with the United States, Svoboda's remarks are the most public and significant yet made on the missile-defense base issue.

A group of Czech military experts was expected to head to the United States in the next week to hold discussions with defense officials there.

William Cabaniss, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, met with the govenor of central Bohemia Aug. 7 and said no decision about the base had been made yet.

Meanwhile, citizens' opposition to any U.S. base here is mounting, and Czechs are criticizing the local media — particularly Czech Television — for its uneven coverage of the contentious issue.

Some 20 civic organizations dropped off a faux missile at Czech Television headquarters Aug. 7 to protest what they called the station's "one-sided" reporting about the base. The station has been too quick to play up the base's advantages while ignoring its drawbacks, protestors said.

The United States is surveying Poland and the Czech Republic as likely hosts for the first foreign arm of its controversial missile-defense shield, intended to protect against long-range missiles fired from the east, including Iran and North Korea.

A Department of Defense delegation was here last month to examine three potential base sites. U.S. officials have said they will make a formal request at the end of the month.

"I don't know the precise date," Svoboda said.

Nearly 5,000 people signed a petition demanding a referendum on a missile defense base, which the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), the petition's originator, delivered to the Chamber of Deputies Aug. 4.

Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek of the Social Democrats has long called for a referendum on any potential missile base here, and it appears that view is gaining momentum.

"If such a base is built, the Czech Republic will become an integral part of the global strategy of the United States without any possibility to affect U.S. policies and without any guarantee that the interests of our population will be taken into account," the Communists' petition reads. "This is unacceptable."

Petitioners also asked that information about the base be released to the public.

Svoboda said he went public because of the KSČM petition. "My goal is to initiate a real discussion on the issue and not to give the Communists the only comment on it."

Missile-defense experts say the U.S. missile base will involve both the Czech Republic and Poland. Svoboda's comments would seem to lend weight to that theory.

"I think you'll find that any European missile-defense system will be configured in a manner that is similar to the existing system in the United States," said Barry Blechman, a member of the defense policy board within the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense. "That is, interceptors in one location, radar in another, with a communications network that links the various components together."

Separating the components of the base has increased the accuracy of the interceptor missiles in limited tests, defense experts say.

While the issue is a hot one here, a Polish weekly newspaper, Przeglŕd, reported recently that the United States has already made its decision in favor of Poland.

The newspaper told The Prague Post that it would soon write a story disclosing where that base will be located in Poland.

"In three or four weeks we are going to publish a story about the installation of this base in Ortysz, near the Baltic Sea but away from Russia and Belarus," said reporter Eugeniusz Janula. "Radar should be placed in the Czech Republic."

The governments involved in negotiations would not confirm Przeglŕd's reports.

Czech sentiment unclear

It remains difficult to gauge just how many Czechs are actually against a U.S. missile base.

A recent poll by the daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) reported that 83 percent of Czechs oppose it. But the poll only questioned 384 people, and the weekly Respekt said such a pool was too small to accurately determine national sentiment.

The only other poll, from 2004, concluded that 62 percent of Czechs actually favor the base. But that survey — conducted for the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA) in Virginia — is even more suspect.

"I can confirm that the survey was conducted online," says Paul Hambly, UK business development manager for Novatris, the company contracted to do the MDAA poll. He could not account for the disparity between that poll and MfD's or say how many people responded to his company's survey.

Economic considerations

Czechs living near military zones that have been identified as potential missile base sites have voiced opposition, despite what some say are clear economic benefits of such a facility.

Delta Junction — a town of nearly 3,000 bordering a U.S. missile defense base at Fort Greely, Alaska — was on the verge of collapse after military cutbacks in the mid-1990s. But the placement of missiles there in 2001 breathed life into the dying town.

"It's had two major impacts," says Delta Junction City Administrator Pete Hallgren. "It's brought more payroll, and it's brought lots of educated people."

The base also brought a much more tangible benefit to the town: more than $24 million (532.6 million Kč) to improve schools and the quality of life for the soldiers stationed nearby.