February 16, 2007	Friday	Muharram 27, 1428

MOSCOW, Feb 15: Russia could withdraw from a Cold War-era treaty limiting short and medium-range missiles if the United States places a missile defence system in the Czech Republic and Poland, the head of the armed forces said on Thursday.

General Yury Baluyevsky told Russian news agencies that Moscow or Washington were entitled to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, commonly known as INF, if there was “convincing proof” of the need to do so.

With several countries currently developing medium-range missiles, “such proof exists,” he told Interfax.

He said Russia's decision could hinge on US plans to build a missile defence shield in central Europe -- plans that Moscow strongly opposes.

“We will see how our American partners act in future. What they’re doing today, creating an... anti-missile defence region in Europe, is inexplicable,”said Baluyevsky.

At an international security conference on Sunday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov called the INF treaty, signed by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1987, a “relic” of the Cold War, saying that other countries were developing such weapons while Washington and Moscow's hands were tied.

Moscow has said it does not accept Washington's assurances that its plans for the defence shield are not aimed against Russia but against “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea.

President Vladimir Putin has promised a “highly effective” response if the United States deploys the defence shield.

Neither the Czech Republic nor Poland have yet approved the US plans, but officials from both countries have spoken in favour.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus said on Wednesday that the shield would protect “the free world.” Poland's Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Thursday he was in favour, under certain conditions, of Poland housing missiles for a defence shield.—AFP