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US, Poland reach 'tentative' agreement on missile defense

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-03 11:07

WASHINGTON - The United States and Poland reached on Wednesday a "tentative agreement" on the deployment of a US missile defense shield in Poland, the State Department officials said.

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"At this point, I am really happy that we made real good progress in the past few days," said a senior official who asked not to be identified.

"We'll see what we get from Poland," he added.

Witold Waszczykowski, Poland's chief negotiator, said here the agreement requires final approval from the Polish government.

The United States, planning to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic as part of its European missile shield, started negotiations with Poland on the missile shield issue in 2002. But the negotiation process hardly makes any significant progress due to each others' differences.

It was reported that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to visit the Czech Republic next week and may also travel to Poland.