VILNIUS, May 20: The United States remains optimistic it will reach a deal with Poland to deploy missile shield facilities there, a senior US official said on Tuesday.

Negotiations with Poland have been dragging for months after Warsaw set tough conditions for agreeing to base 10 interceptor rockets on its soil, including that the United States spend billions of dollars on modernising Polish air defences.

“I remain optimistic that we would be able to successfully conclude the negotiation with Poland... We are not yet finished,” John Rood, the chief US negotiator with Poland, told reporters in Vilnius.

“If we cannot successfully complete the negotiations we will certainly respect their sovereignty and we will look for alternative location to place the missile defence facility.”

Rood, US state undersecretary for arms control and international security, said he had also discussed missile defence with Lithuanian officials. But there were no concrete plans to place the shield’s elements in the ex-Soviet republic.

The Republican US administration is seen as keen to finalise negotiations before President George W. Bush’s term in office ends later this year, which some Polish officials believe gives them leverage to press their demands.

Rood, asked whether he wanted to get the deal before the end of the current US administration, said there was no deadline for concluding talks with Warsaw.

Washington wants to install the interceptor rockets in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic to protect the United States and its allies from attack by what it calls “rogue states”, notably Iran. Russia opposes the plan.

Last week, the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee voted to withhold more than 50 per cent of the funds sought by the Bush administration to start building missile-defence sites in Poland and Czech Republic, pending approval by the two countries of the projects.—Reuters