U.S., Czechs sign missile deal, upsetting Moscow

By Arshad Mohammed and Jan Lopatka

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The United States signed a pact on Tuesday to build part of a U.S. missile defence shield in the Czech Republic, prompting neighbouring Russia to warn it will react with military means if the shield is deployed.

The U.S. and Czech foreign ministers toasted with champagne after signing the accord to place a tracking radar southwest of Prague as part of a system to protect against the perceived threat of missile attack from countries such as Iran.

But Russia, in a statement reminiscent of Cold War rhetoric, warned the United States against deploying the shield close to its borders.

"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 Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its www.mid.ru website.

It did not give specifics but analysts said the threat appeared aimed at stoking European opposition to the shield.

In 2007, former President Vladimir Putin, who is now prime minister, said that Russia could aim missiles at European countries if the U.S. missile shield, which Moscow considers a threat to national security, goes ahead.

The Pentagon said the U.S. missile defence system Washington wants to base in the Czech Republic and Poland is designed to counter missile threats from the Middle East, not Russia.

"We've made several very robust offers to the Russians in terms of how we could collaborate and how we are willing to have as much transparency as possible with respect to this missile defence system, what its design is and what its intent is, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told Reuters on Tuesday.