Agence France-Presse,
PRAGUE: The Czech tracking radar which forms part of the US anti-missile defence shield in Central Europe should be sited at the village of Misov, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) south-west of Prague, a government spokesman announced on Tuesday.
“Based on a proposal from the ministry of defence, the National Security Council has chosen that the final measures will be carried out there, the site was considered the best adapted from a military, strategic and political point of view,” declared Tomas Klvana, the government's spokesman for all matter relating to the radar.
The site, which forms part of the former military base of Brdy, will be subject to further surveys before a final decision that it should host the controversial radar is made.
Czechs are mostly hostile to hosting the US radar with a poll taken by the Factum Invenio institute on behalf of the foreign ministry after President George W. Bush's brief visit last month showing 64.0 percent against the idea.
In the Brdy region opposition is even stronger with a series of referendums in villages surrounding the military base showing a massive majority against.
Washington wants to extend its anti-missile shield into Central Europe with the Czech radar twinned with 10 interceptor missiles in neighbouring Poland in order to protect the United States and its allies from the threat of an attack from a “rogue state” such as Iran.
But the military project in what were former Soviet satellite states has riled Russia and caused relations between Moscow and Washington to seriously sour in recent months.
It has also created rifts cutting across traditional Czech political divisions.
While the centre-right government wants parliament to have the final word on whether to accept the US radar, President Vaclav Klaus has come out in favour of a referendum on the issue, unusually siding himself with the Social Democrat and Communist opposition parties.
