The 10 interceptor rockets in Poland together with a radar complex in the Czech Republic will form the European part of a global system Washington says it is assembling to shoot down ballistic missiles from “rogue” states or militant groups such as al-Qaida. “This is an agreement that will establish a missile defense site here in Poland that will help us to deal with ... long range missiles ... from countries like Iran or North Korea,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who signed the agreement with Poland’s Radoslaw Sikorski, told reporters.

Despite U.S. assurances to the contrary, Russia sees the planned missile shield as a threat to its own security and some Russian politicians and generals have said Poland must be prepared for a preventive attack on the site in the future.

Washington has dismissed this threat as empty rhetoric. NATO said it was unacceptable.

The interceptors will be placed at an ex-Warsaw Pact base of Redzikowo in northern Poland, some 1,360 km (800 miles) from Moscow and 300 km from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, on the Baltic Sea coast.

Russia says Washington and Warsaw rushed through the deal as a response to its military action in Georgia. Warsaw and Washington deny this although Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said events in Georgia show that Poland’s security concerns need to be taken seriously by the United States.

Poland, the biggest ex-Soviet satellite in central Europe, and the Baltic states have condemned Russia’s assault on Tbilisi with political commentators drawing parallels with the Soviet interventions in Hungary and Czechoslovakia in 1956 and 1968.

Surveys have shown a turnaround in Polish public opinion in favor of the shield since the Russian intervention in Georgia, accompanied by a sharp rise in apprehension of Russia.

NATO endorsed the U.S. missile defense plan for Europe at its summit in Bucharest in April even though some European allies are skeptical about its effectiveness and concerned it could lead to a new arms race.

The missile shield deal will now need to be approved by the Polish parliament, which is seen as a formality because the government as well as the main opposition party support it.

Tusk’s government bargained hard over its terms since coming to power last November, demanding greater military cooperation with the United States for hosting the site.

The negotiations seemed stuck in July but a compromise was reached just as Russia intervened in South Ossetia.

Under the deal, Washington finally agreed to meet Poland’s demand to equip its army with a battery of Patriot missiles as defense against a short-range attack Warsaw fears.

“The presence of the Patriot battery which will defend our territory and the U.S. installation is a practical dimension of this watershed agreement,” Tusk said.

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