September 11, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 10, 1429

PRAGUE: The Czech government approved on Wednesday an agreement on deploying US forces at an anti-missile radar, with Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek dismissing a Russian general’s threat to target the site as “nonsense.”

Topolanek told a press conference that the Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa) would go to the Czech parliament in December at the earliest, in other words “after the US presidential elections.” The agreement was the last hurdle before the missile shield plans, which are strongly opposed by Russia, go before parliament, but public opinion is hostile and it is not yet certain to get majority backing.

Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova announced that the government had succeeded in having many of its demands included in formal agreement. Prague and Washington in July signed a preliminary deal to base a powerful radar system in the Czech Republic to support a battery of 10 anti-missile missiles in neighbouring Poland.

Topolanek rejected the latest Russian threats as “nonsense.” “I do not intend to contribute to cold war provocation or rhetoric,” he said. “The radar is purely defensive, designed to deal with long-range missiles from rogue states,” he said.

The radar “cannot either technically or militarily be aimed at a state such as the Russian Federation, which has an arsenal of thousands of these missiles. “This is nonsense on the technical, security and military aspects. “The fact that the Russian administration, or rather Russian generals, use such rhetoric, with some even talking of a new cold war, gives me no pleasure, but it does not change our position in any way. Europe needed a “defensive umbrella,” Topolanek added.—AFP