August 15, 2008	Friday	Sha'aban 12, 1429

WARSAW, Aug 14: Warsaw and Washington have reached a preliminary deal on basing elements of a controversial US missile shield in Poland, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Thursday.

“We have reached a deal with the United States on the shield,” after Washington agreed to meet Poland’s key demand for defence aid separate from the anti-missile system, Tusk told Polish news channel TVN in a live interview.

Washington aims to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland plus a radar facility in the neighbouring Czech Republic by 2011-2013 to complete a system already in place in the United States, Greenland and Britain.

The United States insists the plan is to ward off potential missile attacks by “rogue states” and is not directed against Russia.—AFP