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Moscow pledges military response to US missile shield

08/07/2008

Russia has warned Washington it is prepared to respond militarily after the Czech Republic signed an agreement over the United States' European missile defence shield.

Although the deal is not yet ratified, the preliminary agreement secured by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in Prague has angered Moscow, which claims the missiles undermine its own security.

The Reuters news agency quotes the country's foreign ministry as saying: "If the real deployment of an American strategic missile defence shield begins close to our borders, then we will be forced to react not with diplomatic methods, but with military-technical methods."

The US insists the shield is necessary to protect against attacks from Iran, which it accuses of developing nuclear weapons.

As well as the Czech Republic, Washington hopes to install a similar system in neighbouring Poland.

On Tuesday Ms Rice insisted the missile shield would not be cast aside as the Bush administration draws to a close.

"We face with the Iranians, and so do our allies and friends, a growing missile threat that is growing ever longer and ever deeper and where the Iranian appetite for nuclear technology to this point is still unchecked," she told reporters in the Czech capital.