BRUSSELS, March 5: The United States is confident it can complete negotiations on extending its missile shield into Europe before President George Bush leaves office, senior US officials said on Wednesday.

“The odds are extremely high that they will be successful, extremely high,” said US Acting Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Dan Fried when asked about the chances of striking a deal by the end of the year.

“There are complicated negotiations under way but we are making good progress, both technically and politically,” he told reporters at Nato headquarters in Brussels.

Washington has been negotiating with the Czech Republic and Poland to base a radar and interceptors on their territories to shoot down missiles fired by “rogue states”, amid concerns over Iran's weapons programmes.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country would host a tracking radar, said Sunday that the details could be worked out before an April 2-4 Nato summit in Bucharest.

Poland, which would accept 10 missile interceptors without explosive war heads, said last month that talks with Washington had stalled.—AFP