Six in ten Poles oppose US missile base in their country: survey

The study published by the Rzeczpospolita daily found that 63 percent of Poles are against such a project, 23 percent are in favour, while 14 percent do not have an opinion.

The survey was carried out by the GfK Polonia polling agency and questioned 983 people August 4 to 6.

Rzeczpospolita reported that Washington wanted any missile base built in Poland to be subject to US rather than local law.

Poland has recently voiced doubts over hosting an American missile system. "We're not absolutely forced to accept this offer if we judge that it's not advantageous for us," Polish deputy Defence Minister Stanislaw Koziej told the Dziennik daily at the end of June.

"We don't have to have this installation on our territory if it doesn't clearly serve to increase our security," Koziej added.

The Pentagon said in May that the United States was consulting European allies about deploying missile defences in Europe to thwart any Middle Eastern ballistic missile threat.

The New York Times has reported that the US administration's proposal calls for installing 10 missile interceptors at a European site by 2011, at an estimated cost of 1.6 billion dollars, to protect Europe and the United States against missile attacks by Iran.

The paper said a recommendation on a European site was expected to be made this summer.

A senior US defence official told AFP last year the European site could be very similar to the US site in Fort Greely, Alaska where half a dozen ground-based missiles are positioned to intercept potential long-range missile attacks from North Korea.

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