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US President George W. Bush and Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski overnight vowed to press ahead with a planned US missile shield on Russia's doorstep despite Moscow's angry objections.
The two leaders, meeting at the White House, insisted as they have in the past that the system was not aimed at Russia but at smaller countries that US officials say pose a missile threat,
such as Iran or North Korea.
"There's no better symbol of our desire to work for peace and security than working on a missile defence system," Mr Bush said as they held talks in the Oval Office.
Mr Bush said the deployment "would provide a security for Europe from single- or dual-launch regimes that may emanate from parts of the world where leaders don't particularly care for our
way of life and/or are in the process of trying to develop serious weapons of mass destruction".
Washington wants to site 10 intercepter missiles in Poland as part of an extended defence shield against airborne attacks, along with a powerful tracking radar in the Czech Republic.
"So it is really a defence instrument, missile defence instrument. And so I do hope that all this project, the whole project, will be completed successfully," Mr Kaczynski said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has never been mollified by that argument, and the Kremlin said on Sunday he had signed a decree suspending Moscow's participation in a key post-Cold War
security treaty.
The 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) pact, which came into force in 1992, limits deployments of tanks and troops in countries belonging to NATO and the former Warsaw Pact in eastern
Europe and lays down measures aimed at confidence-building, transparency and cooperation between member states.
Moscow had threatened several times to pull out of the CFE amid concern over US military encroachment into territory once part of the former Soviet Union, including plans to install a
missile defence shield in Eastern Europe.
In recent months Moscow suggested it would target missiles at Europe if the US went ahead with the proposal.
The talks came as US and Russian officials were to meet late this month to study Moscow's proposal for a joint anti-missile base as a substitute for the planned US system based in Poland and
the Czech Republic.
Mr Bush and Mr Kaczynski also discussed US requirements that Poles travelling to the US need a visa - a sore point between the allies, as Poland wants that requirement lifted.
"It is in the hands of the Congress," said the Polish leader. "So we are looking forward to positive changes in this area."
"I will continue to work with Congress to change a law that needs to be changed," said Mr Bush.
The US Senate earlier this year approved legislation adding Poles to the list of foreign nationals exempted from needing a visa to enter the US, in recognition of Poland's support for the
Iraq war and its EU membership.
Poles and other foreigners wishing to travel to the US under the amended visa-free regime, which has yet to be approved by the US House of Representatives, need biometric passports.
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