Central Europe needs NATO forces - Polish minister

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Central Europe needs "strategic reassurance" from Washington and NATO forces should be placed in the region to underscore its value to the alliance, Poland's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

The minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, said a visit last month to Poland and the Czech Republic by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, to ease concerns about Washington's revised missile defense plans, had been welcome, but military capabilities would be more convincing than words.

"If you can still afford it, we need some strategic reassurance," Sikorski said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

President Barack Obama recently decided to scrap plans for Poland and the Czech Republic to host elements of an ambitious missile shield against possible long-range attack from Iran.

Polish officials have said the country would take part in the revised missile defense system, which envisages deployment of sea-based interceptors first and then land-based systems. It would host SM-3 interceptors targeting short and medium-range missiles.

However, there are just six U.S. soldiers in Poland right now, Sikorski noted, while Russia and Belarus recently staged a military exercise involving hundreds of tanks close to Poland.

"If you had on the one hand 900 tanks, and on the other six troops, would you be convinced?" he asked.

When Poland joined NATO 10 years ago, Russia was assuaged with a promise that no substantial NATO forces would be sent to the region, Sikorsky said.

"But nobody imagined at this time that no forces would be put in whatsoever. And so this is I think the job that is going to need to be done."